Kansas City Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield is batting eighth on Tuesday for a matchup with the Texas Rangers and left-handed starter Martin Perez. Merrifield started the year batting near the top of the Kansas City lineup, but he has hit either fifth or sixth for the last week. This is the first time he's hitting eighth this season. Overall, the veteran is batting .135 with a .177 on-base percentage and three stolen bases in 113 plate appearances this season. With just one hit in his last...

Kansas City Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield has been dropped to fifth in the batting order for Tuesday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals and right-hander Dakota Hudson. Merrifield has been hitting either leadoff or in the two-hole so far this year for the Royals, but he'll drop in the lineup Edward Olivares in the leadoff spot for the second straight game. Shortstop Nicky Lopez will also hit ninth for the second straight game. Merrifield will need to show signs of life at the ...

Kansas City Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield has been ice-cold at the plate to begin the 2022 season. He has gone just 8-for-59 so far with only two extra-base hits, both doubles. He stole three bases during the first week of the season but hasn't been able to swipe a bag since. If there's one silver lining for the 33-year-old, it's that he's only struck out 13.1% of the time, which ranks in the 92nd percentile. However, most of the data is extremely discouraging for him. He has yet to ...

Kansas City Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield is off to a slow start to the 2022 season. Over eight games, he's gone just 5-for-33 with one walk and no extra-base hits, leading to a rough slash line of .152/.176/.152. Despite leading off in each game he's played, Merrifield has yet to score a run on the season. On the bright side, he's already racked up three stolen bases and he's continued to be an extremely tough batter to strike out with an 8.8% strikeout rate. Fantasy managers should ...

The Kansas City Royals and second baseman/outfielder Whit Merrifield have agreed to a restructured contract. The club exercised its option on Merrifield for the 2023 season and a mutual option for the 2024 season has been added. The 33-year-old has spent each of his six years in the majors with the Royals. Last year, he played in all 162 games and slashed .277/.317/.395 with 10 home runs, 74 RBI, 97 runs and an AL-leading 40 stolen bases. His stolen base prowess and valuable second base ...

Kansas City Royals second baseman and outfielder Whit Merrifield turned in another quality season in 2021, providing solid production in terms of batting average and stolen bases. The veteran hit .277 with a .317 on-base percentage, 10 home runs, and 40 stolen bases in 720 plate appearances for Kansas City last season. Thanks in part to the 40 stolen bases, Merrifield was one of the best second base options for fantasy managers last season. He'll once again be among the best at his position in ...

Kansas City Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield had a hard time finding his power stroke last season but made up for it with 40 stolen bases, second in baseball. Across 162 games, he slashed .277/.317/.395 with 10 HRs, 97 runs, and 74 RBI. His batted ball data wasn't very impressive, ranking in the 6th percentile for HardHit% and barrelling the ball just 3.5% of the time. His .277 batting average isn't bad, but his .262 xBA looks worse. Despite this, Merrifield's HR/FB was a minuscule 5%, ...

Kansas City Royals second baseman/outfielder Whit Merrifield is second in the majors in stolen bases on the year with 40. He trails only Starling Marte, who has 45. However, Merrifield hasn't been very aggressive on the base paths in September. He's only attempted a steal three times this month, converting 2-of-3 attempts. In August, conversely, he went 11-for-13 in stolen base attempts. The 32-year-old veteran has slashed .278/.318/.396 on the year. His power output has been disappointing as ...

Kansas City Royals second baseman/outfielder Whit Merrifield led off Saturday's game against the Seattle Mariners with a solo home run, his 10th home run of the year. He went 2-for-5 in the game overall. Merrifield has been heating up at the plate lately. He's recorded multiple hits in six of his last eight games, a streak that has included two home runs and four doubles. Before this recent hot streak, he'd gone nearly two months without hitting a home run. Over 129 games on the year, the ...

Kansas City Royals second baseman/outfielder Whit Merrifield had the biggest hit of the day for the team in Wednesday's game against the Houston Astros. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as the Royals fell 6-5 in 10 innings. Merrifield launched a grand slam in the seventh inning, which gave the Royals a 5-3 lead at the time. He also doubled in the game and he attempted to steal his 38th bag of the year, but was instead caught stealing for just the third time this season. Merrifield now has nine ...