Minors: Jackson Merrill's season ends; Aaron Leasher wild in El Paso loss
Jackson Merrill is going home for the winter.
The troublesome left hamstring that barred him from Double-A San Antonio’s postseason roster will also end his season. There’d been some chatter in the organization earlier in the summer about possibly considering the 20-year-old shortstop for a September call-up, but that was before the Padres stockpiled prospects at San Antonio for this week’s Texas League championship push.
The Missions lost a decisive Game 3 on Friday without Merrill appearing as he’d been battling left hamstring issues for a couple weeks before the end of the regular season and was left off the roster when it was set Tuesday.
Prospects Graham Pauley, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella will continue their season next month in the Arizona Fall League.
Meantime, Merrill’s busy second full season in pro ball has come to an end.
He battled two debilitating bouts with the flu early in the year at high Single-A Fort Wayne, but he still paired 10 homers with a .280/.318/.444 batting line in 68 games to earn the promotion to San Antonio after representing the Padres in the All-Star Futures Game.
All told, Merrill paired 15 homers, 15 steals and 64 RBIs with a .277/.326/.444 batting line across 114 games.
Merrill is ranked No. 2 in the Padres organization behind catcher Ethan Salas and No. 9 in MLB.com’s top-100.
Saturday’s scoreboard
TRIPLE-A EL PASO (61-88)
