Finally! Merrill vs. Skenes on Tuesday will be 'fun for game of baseball'

PITTSBURGH -- The Padres haven’t had a National League Rookie of the Year Award winner since 1987, when Benito Santiago took home the honor. It’s the longest drought for any club.

But here’s the thing: If Jackson Merrill were a rookie in nearly any other season -- or, heck, if Pirates ace Paul Skenes pitched in the American League in 2024 -- Merrill would’ve almost certainly been the one to break that streak.

As it were, Skenes and Merrill took part in one of the great Rookie of the Year races in recent memory. Ultimately, Skenes’ dominance down the stretch in ‘24 won out. But that entire summer was epic, with Merrill delivering clutch home run after clutch home run and Skenes delivering dominant start after dominant start.

The only downside ... They never actually got to face each other.

Still haven’t. But that will change on Tuesday night at PNC Park.

“Good arm, good challenge,” Merrill said. “The Rookie of the Year stuff, that doesn’t matter anymore. But it’s fun for the game of baseball.”

Indeed, it would’ve been a whole lot more fun had the two squared off during that 2024 race. But Skenes’ turn in the rotation didn’t line up with either of the Padres’ series against the Pirates. At the time, it felt like the sport was robbed of an all-time rookie showdown.

But Merrill didn’t view it that way.

“I was happy we didn’t face him all year,” Merrill said. “My mind was on just getting to the playoffs. I wanted to get to the playoffs and win in the playoffs, and I think facing him would have made it a little harder.

“We did play them in the stretch where we were sweeping everybody though. We were winning a lot of series at that point. So who knows?”

Merrill, in particular, was on fire at the time. He hit five tying or go-ahead home runs in the ninth inning or later that season, becoming the youngest player in the expansion era (since at least 1961) to do so -- and the first rookie. He hit three of those during a 23-game stretch from the start of the second half through the two early-August series against the Pirates. Merrill batted .329 with a 1.017 OPS in that span, and the Padres went 19-4.

Ultimately, Merrill would finish with some gaudy numbers. He led all rookies in fWAR (5.3), hits (162), extra-base hits (61), RBIs (90), batting average (.292) and slugging percentage (.500), and he tied for first (with Baltimore's Colton Cowser) with 24 home runs.

In just about any other season ...

“Yeah,” Merrill laughed. “There’s not many years where I would have lost.”

Here’s the list of rookies over the past 10 years who have posted a higher fWAR than Merrill’s 5.3 mark: Aaron Judge (8.7 in 2017), Julio Rodríguez (5.7 in ‘22), Adley Rutschman (5.6 in ‘22) Corbin Carroll (5.4 in ‘23).

Merrill’s 2024 season was, per fWAR, better than the rookie seasons from Pete Alonso, Ronald Acuña Jr., Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager -- all runaway NL Rookies of the Year.

Then again, Merrill’s fWAR was also better than Skenes. But it was Skenes’ utter dominance that convinced voters to lean his way. Skenes ultimately received 23 of the 30 first-place votes with Merrill earning the other seven.

There are plenty of Padres fans -- and people within the organization -- who still believe Merrill should’ve won, citing his excellence across 156 games and his ability to learn center field on the fly, becoming an elite defender with almost no prior center-field experience.

Merrill appreciates the sentiment. He’s not here to argue. But credit where it’s due, he says. Skenes was unbelievable in 2024.

“I look back at ‘24 sometimes and think, yeah, that was a cool race,” Merrill said. “But the guy had a one-nine ERA. [1.96 to be exact.] You don’t see that out of a rookie. You don’t see that out of anybody really. There was no one more deserving than him.”

Still, if any part of Merrill wants to prove a point, he’ll finally get the chance to do so on Tuesday.