Jackson Merrill’s old quote about the playoffs now stings for the Pirates
Jackson Merrill made one thing clear earlier this season: individual awards were never the point. Before he finally squared off with Paul Skenes in April, the San Diego Padres outfielder said Skenes deserved to win Rookie of the Year in 2024, then added that he was more focused on the bigger prize.
“My mind was on just getting to the playoffs,” Merrill told MLB.com. “I wanted to get to the playoffs and win in the playoffs.”
That line has aged brutally in Pittsburgh, because Merrill has spent the last two seasons doing exactly that while Skenes still hasn’t gotten a postseason pitch.
Merrill debuted in 2024 and helped San Diego get to October right away. The Padres swept the Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card Series and then pushed the eventual champion Los Angeles Dodgers to five games in the NLDS. Merrill made his mark in that run, becoming the youngest Padre ever to homer in a postseason game.
The postseason trips kept coming. San Diego was back in 2025, and again in 2026 after sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card round to advance to the NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers. That means three big-league seasons, three playoff appearances for Merrill.
The Pirates, by contrast, have given Skenes the kind of platform that comes with stardom - All-Star nods, awards, standing ovations and national television starts. They’ve had a chance to showcase one of baseball’s most recognizable young pitchers and watch him do things Pittsburgh hasn’t seen from a starter in generations. What they haven’t delivered is October.
The Rookie of the Year debate between Skenes and Merrill once felt lively enough. Merrill had the everyday production.
Skenes had the dominant numbers. Pittsburgh fans pushed for their guy, San Diego fans pushed for theirs, and Skenes ended up with 23 of 30 first-place votes.
Merrill didn’t argue this spring. He said nobody was more deserving.
But the real comparison now is bigger than that award. Merrill is 23 and has already played in three postseasons.
Skenes is one of the best pitchers on the planet and still hasn’t thrown a playoff pitch. That’s the part that looks bad for Pittsburgh.
The Pirates did make progress in 2026, finishing 82-80 and posting their first winning season since 2018. That’s better than another year buried in the standings and better than waiting for September to just end.
Still, it wasn’t enough. Not with Skenes already three seasons into his career. Not when teams like the Padres keep showing that having a young star is supposed to mean competing for October, not postponing it indefinitely.
San Diego hasn’t won a World Series during Merrill’s time there, and the Padres have dealt with their own issues - roster flaws, money questions and postseason disappointments. But they’ve cleared the first and most important hurdle: getting in.
Merrill’s quote wasn’t meant as a shot at Pittsburgh. He was talking about his own mindset in the middle of that Rookie of the Year race. Facing Skenes might have made October tougher for San Diego, and that was more important to him than any trophy.
That’s the kind of answer teams love to hear from a young player. It also leaves the Pirates with an uncomfortable question: how much longer before Skenes starts thinking the same way about his own career?
Pittsburgh doesn’t need to be happy just having him. It needs to cash in on him. Three seasons have already gone by without a playoff appearance for Skenes, and Merrill’s career is a reminder of how fast those chances can disappear when an organization actually builds around its star.
Two years ago, Pirates fans celebrated Skenes beating Merrill for Rookie of the Year. Since then, Merrill has kept chasing the only award he said really mattered. The Pirates still haven’t given Skenes the same shot.
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