Padres' Jackson Merrill going back to go forward

ARLINGTON, Texas - Almost anyone who has watched the Padres closely for a couple years can see it happening and know that things are as they should be.

Jackson Merrill is right when he's going to left.

When he is sending balls the opposite way, he is where he is supposed to be.

Gavin Sheets was discussing what seems to be the beginnings of a Merrill breakout the other day. And in 15 seconds, Sheets essentially covered all the complexity and simplicity of Merrill's swing.

"He's driving the ball to left-center," Sheets said. "That’s his cue. His gift is he hits the ball to left-center. He stays short, he’s not jumping to things, he’s not chasing. And, you know, even if he is chasing, he’s aggressive to the baseball. He's gotten back to ‘Short to it and long through it.'"

Merrill going the other way is not the end-all as much as it is a sign. Like a rainbow, but before and during the downpour.

It means he is being himself. It means he is focused on looking for the right pitch and is less likely to swing at the wrong pitch. It means he is staying back but ready to pounce.

It also means he can do what he did in the ninth inning Wednesday in St. Louis when he pulled a sweeper that broke down and in, off the plate and level with the top of his shins, 423 feet down the right field line.

That means he went up there to hit, got a pitch in a spot he could do damage - and hit it.

"He's on the attack," hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. said. "At times, he has been caught in between trying to make sure it’s the right pitch. And Jackson has got an innate ability to put the ball in play on balls that other guys can’t. So it's just shifting his mindset to stay on the attack."

What can be seen lately is a decisive Merrill - a hitter who plans to swing and then sometimes doesn't, versus one who is unsure about swinging and then decides to swing.

It might be too early to declare Merrill is back to peak form - the guy with the .826 OPS in 2024 or even the .774 OPS of his injury-plagued 2025.

But where he was swinging late (or not at all) and swinging indiscriminately, he has looked like he has a clue for going on three weeks and has seemed truly locked in for the past week.

Even in the last few days of May, he began striking out less and sending more balls over the shortstop's head (as opposed to toward the second baseman's feet). Starting June 5 and heading into play Friday, Merrill went to the opposite field with 16 of the 41 balls he put in play. That is a rate of 39%, well above his season rate of 27% to that point.

Still, a 1-for-15 stretch had his batting average at .198 and his OPS down to .594 on June 8.

He is up to .213 and .636 now, having gone 11-for-36 with two home runs, a triple and a double in the eight games since.

So what was up?

"I don't know, truthfully," Merrill said. "It's a crazy game, a confusing game. I don't have any full answers."

There is something to that. But there was also something to the idea he was trying to become more disciplined and expand his game. His swing took an upward arc. He was caught between being the kid who could hit anything and the kid who swung at too much. He became susceptible to the inside pitch, which has always been where to beat him.

"I just kind of felt like the whole plate - stuff was getting by me," he said. "Sticking to my approach, my plan, it’s gonna help me really hit that one pitch I'm looking for and I’ve been missing a lot."

Merrill not only made a lot of outs. He missed a lot of hits.

Merrill is averaging nearly four pitches per plate appearance - up a half-pitch from last season and 0.25 from his rookie year - in large part because of a number of plate appearances that last eight or more pitches.

"Great, a long at-bat," Merrill said sarcastically. "But the at-bat should have been over on the third pitch."

His meaning was that he has been missing and fouling off pitches he should be hitting over fences or into gaps.

Concurrently, he was alternating between not chasing pitches out of the zone and chasing waste pitches. Not only was his strikeout rate up, so was his looking strikeout percentage.

"I was so in-between," he said. "I think my vision gets better when my chase rate goes down. But I've never been that type of hitter that's really good at taking (a lot of) pitches. I've been aggressive and trusting my eyes since I was (a kid)."

So moving forward meant going back.

"It’s just like, ‘Why change anything that made you who you are in the first place?' Merrill said. "Let's go back to the basics. … All I can say is using the whole field’s gonna help me more than what I did at the beginning of the year.

"I've been working my ass off. I haven’t really tried to think too much about it. Getting in a good position to hit the ball and be early always."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 3:58 PM.