Jackson Merrill headshot

Jackson Merrill

San Diego Padres · CF · through 2026-09-02

Season in context

Why he matters right now

Jackson Merrill sits 45th of 51 in OPS among qualified hitters on this site's tracked board

No MLB leaderboard lead, no live chase and no milestone in range — a .241 average; 22 home runs; 70 RBI; 24 stolen bases. The numbers below are the whole story, and a season that does not make a claim is a perfectly normal thing for a big-league season to be.

This has been his headline for 24 straight days.

The case in 30 seconds

  • No thesis cleared its evidence threshold; 45th of 51 in the qualified population; checked 9 leaderboards, the chase board and both milestone watch lists player_story tier scan — deliberate no-story outcome
  • .241 .711 OPS, 22 home runs, 70 RBI and 24 stolen bases over 137 games snapshot batting board — the union of MLB's top-10 hitting boards, then MLB's 3.1 PA per team game rule applied; not the league's full qualified pool

The honest caveat

No thesis is not the same as no value. This page reports what cleared its evidence bar; a season can matter to a team in ways a leaderboard does not record.

What to watch next

Next up: vs New York Yankees.

Every claim above, with its source (2)
  1. No thesis cleared its evidence threshold; 45th of 51 in the qualified population; checked 9 leaderboards, the chase board and both milestone watch lists player_story tier scan — deliberate no-story outcome
  2. .711 OPS, 22 home runs, 70 RBI and 24 stolen bases over 137 games snapshot batting board — the union of MLB's top-10 hitting boards, then MLB's 3.1 PA per team game rule applied; not the league's full qualified pool

The evidence

What to watch next

vs New York Yankees Petco Park · 9:40 p.m. ET Facing Max Fried

Jackson Merrill faces a left-hander in Max Fried. He is hitting .284 with 4 home runs in 155 at-bats against left-handers this season.

Situational splits

SplitABAVGHRRBIOPS
vs RHP 376 .223 1847 .707
vs LHP 155 .284 423 .722
Home 256 .246 834 .716
Away 275 .236 1436 .707
Day 192 .271 1125 .829
Night 339 .224 1145 .645

2026 season, MLB Stats API. A split with no plate appearances is omitted rather than shown as zeroes.

137G
531AB
128H
.241AVG
22HR
70RBI
24SB
222B
33B
.711OPS

Chasing .400

.241Current AVG
141Consecutive hits needed to reach .400
125-for-100Needed over next 100 AB
1.422Rest-of-season AVG to finish .400 (118-for-83)

Status: IMPOSSIBLE

Milestone tracker

ChaseTargetCurrentPaceNeeded from hereStatus
.350 AVG .350 .241 .241 1.048 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.380 AVG .380 .241 .241 1.277 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.400 AVG .400 .241 .241 1.422 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.406 AVG .406 .241 .241 1.470 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
.466 AVG .466 .241 .241 1.916 ROS IMPOSSIBLE
50 HR 50 22 25 28 in 22 g · 1 per 3.0 AB EXTREME
60 HR 60 22 25 38 in 22 g · 1 per 2.2 AB EXTREME
62 HR 62 22 25 40 in 22 g · 1 per 2.1 AB EXTREME
70 HR 70 22 25 48 in 22 g · 1 per 1.7 AB EXTREME
73 HR 73 22 25 51 in 22 g · 1 per 1.6 AB EXTREME
200 Hits 200 128 148 72 in 22 g EXTREME
225 Hits 225 128 148 97 in 22 g EXTREME
250 Hits 250 128 148 122 in 22 g EXTREME
262 Hits 262 128 148 134 in 22 g EXTREME
50 SB 50 24 28 26 in 22 g EXTREME
80 SB 80 24 28 56 in 22 g EXTREME
100 SB 100 24 28 76 in 22 g EXTREME
130 SB 130 24 28 106 in 22 g EXTREME
50 2B 50 22 25 28 in 22 g EXTREME
60 2B 60 22 25 38 in 22 g EXTREME
67 2B 67 22 25 45 in 22 g EXTREME
20 3B 20 3 3 17 in 22 g EXTREME
25 3B 25 3 3 22 in 22 g EXTREME
36 3B 36 3 3 33 in 22 g EXTREME
125 RBI 125 70 81 55 in 22 g EXTREME
150 RBI 150 70 81 80 in 22 g EXTREME
175 RBI 175 70 81 105 in 22 g EXTREME
191 RBI 191 70 81 121 in 22 g EXTREME

How likely is the finish?

0%finishes with 40+ home runs
0%finishes with 50+ home runs
0%finishes with 60+ home runs

His rate of 38.190 home runs per 1,000 plate appearances is read as 36.640 after regressing toward the league's 30.240 — a leaderboard selects for players who have outperformed, so an unregressed rate projected forward overstates every one of them. That puts the expected finish at 24.7, against a straight team-game pace of 25. Exact beta-binomial over 91 remaining plate appearances, averaged across playing-time scenarios. Calibrated against Retrosheet finishes: within 7 points of observed frequency in every band, and within 2 in three of five. It is a model, not a measurement.

Home run pace vs the benchmark seasons

36730162 gJudge 62Bonds 7322
Cumulative home runs by team game against straight 62 (Judge 2022) and 73 (Bonds 2001) paces. The homepage checkpoint card uses the exact game-by-game Retrosheet curves; these reference lines are straight-line paces.
0.0%of comparable chases reached 40 HR
0.0%of comparable chases reached 50 HR
0.0%of comparable chases reached 60 HR

Empirical: seasons within ±2 HR of his total at the same team-game checkpoint (n=1637); median finish 24. Retrosheet.

Recent game log

Derived nightly from the snapshot ledger — each row is the difference between consecutive days; multi-day rows are labeled.

DateOppResultABHHRRBIRSBBBKAVG
2026-09-01 Cincinnati Reds L 3-4 30 0 00 00 0 .241
2026-08-31 Cincinnati Reds W 5-0 94 0 11 00 3 .242
2026-08-30 Tampa Bay Rays L 4-5 51 0 01 00 2 .239
2026-08-29 Tampa Bay Rays L 6-7 40 0 00 01 0 .239
2026-08-28 Tampa Bay Rays L 4-9 32 1 22 01 0 .241
2026-08-26 Pittsburgh Pirates W 3-0 32 0 11 01 0 .239
2026-08-25 Pittsburgh Pirates L 0-1 40 0 00 00 2 .236
2026-08-24 Pittsburgh Pirates L 2-3 50 0 00 00 2 .238
2026-08-23 Minnesota Twins W 8-1 51 1 11 00 0 .240
2026-08-22 Minnesota Twins W 7-5 32 1 21 01 0 .241

Recent highlights

Lahman + Retrosheet context

How this season fits history

Historical twinAaron Boone · 2002

87% season-shape match

HR checkpoint-37 vs Barry Bonds

Through 140 team games; 59 in 2001

Chase history

.214.237.26104-1209-02
Batting average, day by day
17243004-1209-02
Projected HR, day by day