Aug 15, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Whit Merrifield (1) gets ready batting practice against the Baltimore Orioles at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
MLBBy Andrew Bucholtz on

Some MLB home runs go incredible distances. Others barely make it out of the field of play. Whit Merrifield’s first home run with the Toronto Blue Jays was the latter. Sunday, in a road game against the New York Yankees, Merrifield hit a ball off Nestor Cortes Jr. to right-center field. That ball bounced twice on top of the wall before going over:

There are any number of ways this might not have wound up as a home run. If either bounce is slightly different, the ball comes back into the field of play. In that case, Merrifield (seen above during batting practice on Aug. 15) is likely held to two or three bases.

Alternatively, if Yankees’ center fielder Aaron Hicks approached this differently, he might have been able to pull it back. Hicks was initially charging for the wall, then backed off to play a bounce, and then tried to jump for the ball after the first bounce, but he didn’t have enough momentum to get above the wall. That’s shown in this screengrab:

Whit Merrifield's home run against the Yankees bounced twice on the fence before going over.

But this did wind up bouncing over the wall, and it wound up tying the game and counting as Merrifield’s first home run for the Blue Jays. And that’s notable for a few reasons. Merrifield previously made headlines for his revelation that he wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19 while with the Kansas City Royals, meaning he couldn’t play road games in Toronto, but he would consider that if traded to a playoff team. That made it quite interesting when he was traded to the Blue Jays earlier this month.

In the end, Merrifield did live up to that “consideration.” He got vaccinated before entering Canada, allowing him to play in both home and road games. He was only hitting .237/.293/.237 with Toronto entering Sunday, though, below his .240/.290/.352 line with the Royals. But this home run will add to those slugging numbers. Even if it barely made it out of the park.

[Toronto Blue Jays on Twitter; photo from Nick Turchiaro/USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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