The 2024 San Diego Padres are arguably the deepest team in baseball. There are a number of players on their roster that you can beat on any given night, and both the rotation and bullpen are among the best in baseball right now. Isolating “one man” as the reason for the Padres’ success this season is very difficult and unfair to the collective team effort that got them to this point.

However, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes San Diego would be in such a favorable position if Jackson Merrill didn’t play every day this season.

While Merrill has rightly received a lot of rookie of the year praise from Padres fans and neutral pundits, what he accomplished in his first season in the big leagues is still somehow underrated.

Merrill has played Gold Glove-level defense at a position he switched to during spring training, while also displaying an all-around offensive game that ranks among the best outfielders in MLB. Is he the absolute best in any area? No, but he’s really good at pretty much everything except work.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder Merrill was predicted to make the playoffs in a panel on potential postseason breakout stars on MLB.com.

Jackson Merrill predicted a big breakout in the 2024 playoffs

Merrill’s attorney in this case was Yahoo! Sports’ Russell Dorsey, highlighting his overall competence at such a tender age. However, Dorsey also rightly pointed out that Merrill also has a real knack for rising to the occasion in big moments. With all the game-winning hits, home runs and great catches late in games, it’s hard to argue with that.

However, the playoffs are a different beast than the regular season. Any single game can completely change the face of a winner-take-all series, and to be honest, Merrill has never faced a situation like this. We can draw conclusions from what he’s done so far, but we won’t know for sure whether Merrill will still be “that guy” until he actually does it.

However, Merrill has exceeded all expectations so far and has eliminated almost every doubt during his stellar rookie campaign (please start taking some walks, Jackson). Assuming that continues and he truly is “built different,” Padres fans could be in for one hell of a show this October.

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