Jackson Merrill hitting sixth on Monday vs. Cubs

Merrill hit a 423-foot homer off a 99.5-mph Shohei Ohtani fastball in the fourth inning tonight. Merrill’s OPS has held very steady in the .600-.620 range for a couple of months, but he’s actually been worse than ever from an xwOBA standpoint of late. Maybe things are turning around now, but it’s going to take more than two games to make anyone believe it.

Taylor finishes hitless in the series against the Dodgers, though he did have four walks while going 0-for-10. He’s still hitting .324/.410/.384 overall, and while it shouldn’t last, his stolen base ability makes him a decent fantasy option while he’s playing regularly.

Sung-Mun Song gets the nod at the keystone with red-hot Samad Taylor in right field for Sunday afternoon’s showdown at Globe Life Field. It’s the first day off for Tatis since May 3. The 27-year-old fantasy standout has experienced a tumultuous season at the dish, putting it mildly, but he’s shown some real signs of life recently, hitting .329 (24-for-73) with one homer and four steals in 17 games since the start of June.

Merrill’s homer was a two-run shot in the ninth that gave San Diego a couple of insurance runs, his eighth of the year. He’s up to 12-for-13 in stolen-base attempts while running at a more aggressive clip than either of his first two seasons. Merrill’s performance at the plate has been in a multi-year decline since he exploded onto the scene as a 21-year-old rookie in 2024. However, he’s still just 23 years old, making him a strong buy-low candidate in keeper formats.

Taylor has gone 9-for-31 (.355) with one home run, six runs scored, eight RBI, and three steals in nine games since being recalled from Triple-A, so the Padres will reward him by moving him up in the order. Those stats are great, and Taylor can certainly fly, but he also had just a 27 percent hard-hit rate in Triple-A and a league-average 85 percent zone contact rate. He’s hitting the ball on the ground 60 percent of the time and has the speed to beat out infield singles, the batting average and stolen bases could be there, but he’s a career .250/.313/.327 hitter in 118 MLB plate appearances, so don’t expect him to keep producing at this level.

Machado took Orioles reliever Albert Suárez deep in the ninth inning to close out a five-homer afternoon for the Padres that included blasts by Jackson Merrill, Samad Taylor, Gavin Sheets and Rodolfo Durán. The 33-year-old veteran third baseman has hit a bit of a rough patch lately, batting .196 (9-for-46) with two homers and five RBI since the start of June.

Taylor also swiped his first bag in his third game since being called up Wednesday. In another timeline, Taylor is a well-established MLB bench player thanks to his speed, versatility and modest on-base skills. It hasn’t worked out in this one, but as lacking as the Padres are at the moment, maybe he’ll play enough to offer some NL-only value.

Taylor will take Nick Castellanos’ spot on the roster and is capable of playing all around the outfield and at second base. He was hitting .319/.406/.500 in 51 games at Triple-A with seven home runs and nine steals. He seems likely to serve in a super utility role with the Padres.

It was a line drive missile off a Mitchell Parker slider, landing 414 feet away from the plate to right-center, that gave the Padres a late 7-5 lead they’d hold on to. Merrill briefly fell to hitting .194 earlier this week, but he’s now fought his way back to .201/.274/.332 on the season with 10 stolen bases and five home runs. If you could cover your eyes and forget about the batting average, the surface numbers are alright. But we can’t do that. Merrill will need to hit better over the summer to return value equivalent to his draft position for fantasy managers.

Merrill missed Friday’s game while dealing with soreness in his ribs. The 23-year-old is good to go for Saturday’s contest, however, and will hit sixth while patrolling center for San Diego in the middle contest against the A’s.