NEWSLETTER
Add another feather to the considerably decorated cap that Matt Mervis has worn this year. The 24-year-old first base prospect who rose from High-A to Triple-A in 2022, winning player of the year honors along the way, has kept right on raking after the season in the Arizona Fall League.
For that, he’s going to be an AFL Fall Star, together with his org mate Bailey Horn:
The Fall Stars Game is on Sunday at 3pm CT at Sloan Park. It’ll be broadcast on MLB Network and streamed on MLB.com.
Mervis hit .275/.321/.608 in the AFL with as many homers (5) as strikeouts. You don’t think of Mervis as a contact artist, but no hitter with more than 23 at bats had just five strikeouts EXCEPT Mervis, and he had 51(!) at bats. (Weird and sad fun fact I noticed while perusing the stats? There was just one hitter in the league who had MORE homers than strikeouts – it was Brennen Davis, who had two homers and just one strikeout before his campaign ended early thanks to renewed back troubles.)
Mervis will also participate in the home run derby this weekend.
Joining Mervis is Bailey Horn, 24, who posted a 1.50 ERA on the season (12.0 innings), tied for 9th best in the league. He struck out 9 and walked 7, though, so the peripherals were definitely not great. You could’ve made a case for fellow lefty Riley Martin, who had a 3.38 ERA over 10.2 innings, but struck out 15 while walking just 5.
