Jackson Merrill says he couldn’t care less about the All-Star Game.
That’s been his stance throughout this productive start to his first season in the majors, and it hadn’t changed much after the Padres’ 9-1 loss to the Diamondbacks on Sunday.
Joe Musgrove knows better.
“Everyone says they don’t care about it,” Musgrove said. “You should care about it. All-Star Games are hard to make. I know he does care about winning. That’s not all he cares about, but he should definitely care about this selection.”
This one is especially rare.
Joining closer Robert Suarez and infielder Luis Arraez as Sunday’s additions to the National League roster, the 21-year-old center fielder is the first Padres rookie to earn an invitation to the Midsummer Classic, the youngest Padre to ever make the game, and the youngest player in baseball selected to this year’s game.
At 21 years and 88 days old when the game will be played on July 16 in Texas, Merrill is the youngest player to be selected to an All-Star Game since Bryce Harper (20, 273), Manny Machado (21, 10) and Jose Fernandez (20, 350) made the game in 2013.
The only other players younger to make the game in the last 40 years: Ivan Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Trout, Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera.
“Maybe, maybe there will be a second when I think of it,” Merrill said. “But I was (ticked) off today when we lost, regardless of what I got told today. My mind is always focused on the team over myself individually.”
That team’s focus, however, was squarely on Merrill on Sunday morning as the news of his selection broke.
Arraez ranks third in the NL in batting average (.312) as he makes a third straight team; Suarez ranks third in the NL in saves in making his first All-Star roster.
They were, more or less, expected to make the team.
As for Merrill, he’d never played above Double-A, moved to center field in spring training to replace two-time Gold Glover Trent Grisham and had mashed nine home runs in the previous 23 games to plant his name among the favorites for NL Rookie of the Year.
“Lot of love,” Musgrove said of the reveal of Merrill making the NL’s All-Star team. “It was like the biggest response from a team for somebody getting selected. Everyone was feeling and showing the way they felt about it. It was one of the most exciting ones I’ve seen.”
Added Arraez: “I was happy when I saw his face. I thought he was going to cry. … He deserves it.”
Sunday’s additions give the Padres, currently the NL’s second wild-card team, five All-Stars. Only four will attend as Fernando Tatis Jr. — voted in as a starter alongside Jurickson Profar earlier in the week — is on the injured list with a stress reaction in his right quad. The last time the Padres had five All-Stars was in 2021.
“We love it,” said Merrill, who is hitting .288/.322/.452 with 12 homers. “Everyone that’s not going, they are fully supportive of us and that’s really important to the people that are going. We know that everybody on this team has each other’s backs.”
A first-timer like Merrill and Profar, Suarez is third in the NL with 22 saves in 24 tries and has a 1.77 ERA through 36 appearances in his first season as the Padres’ closer. Two years ago, he was a 31-year-old journeyman who’d pitched in Venezuela, Mexico and Japan before making his big-league debut with the Padres.
“Very excited,” Suarez said through interpreter Danny Sanchez. “Every day trying to learn, and just learn from the experience, continue to build on my experience ever since that rookie year.”
Arraez is hitting .312, third in the NL behind Profar (.315) and Shohei Ohtani (.316). He is appearing in a third straight All-Star Game, as the previous selections coincided with seasons in which he won batting titles with the Twins and Marlins.
“Amazing,” Arraez said of his selection. “It’s one of my goals every year.”