Whit Merrifield gives the Phillies what they lacked against the Diamondbacks instead of what got them to the NLCS in the first place.
Whit Merrifield gives the Phillies a utility player who can steal bases as well. He led the AL in steals three times between 2017-21.It’s amazing how easily bright baseball men can be pushed to the conclusion that what their team really needs is less of the thing that their team is best at. It’s especially confounding when the thing that their team is best at is the thing that produces the most runs. Namely, reaching base and hitting for power.
Thing is, the Phillies scored 48 fewer runs from 2009 to 2010. After they let Jayson Werth walk, their offense plummeted to seventh in the NL. They still haven’t won that elusive title.I guess that’s a long-winded way of saying that Whit Merrifield makes perfect sense for the Phillies. At least, theof him does.
Clearly, the Phillies valued Merrifield as something greater than Rojas insurance. His underlying metrics tell the tale. Even in 2023, his contact rate was well above where the Phillies finished as a team . Only Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm put the bat on the ball more often than Merrifield did in 2023. His 21 infield hits would have ranked third behind Stott and Trea Turner. More than a third of his outs were productive outs; i.e.
At the end of the day, the wisdom of the Merrifield signing will be judged based on whatever else the Phillies could have gotten out of that money. I’m not necessarily skeptical. I’m more intrigued. It is a proof-in-the-pudding kind of move. The Phillies will be right or they will be wrong, and it may not make a difference either way.
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