Ex-Royals manager Ned Yost admits his initial evaluation of Whit Merrifield was wrong
Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield made his big-league debut in 2016, but it very nearly came a year earlier.
When Alex Gordon was injured in a game in July 2015, Whit Merrifield was removed from a game with the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, and it appeared he might get the call to the big leagues. Instead the Royals recalled pitcher Brandon Finnegan.
So Merrifield watched the Royals win the World Series that year after he finished his season with the Storm Chasers.
But if Ned Yost, who was the Royals’ manager at the time, had a better feeling about what Merrifield would one day become in the majors, maybe it would have been Whit’s time.
Yost was on “The Whole Story Podcast With Alex Feuz” and discussed his time in Kansas City, starting with his days as a special advisor.
That first year with the Royals in 2010, Yost went to big-league spring training in Surprise, Arizona, but then made a point of seeing the minor-league players he had heard so much about in meetings.
“I wanted to see Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Yordano Ventura, Kelvin Herrera, Greg Holland, all the kids that you know became the nucleus of a championship in ’14 and ’15,” Yost recalled. “So once the minor-league camp opened, I would be at minor-league camp all morning and watch these kids perform. And a lot of time I would just stand back, I wanted to see how they interacted with the their teammates, I wanted to see how their worth ethic was, I wanted to see their talent and ability So got a real good feeling who they were and what they and would soon be able to accomplish.
“For me, I’ve always been lucky, one of my little strengths that I have, we don’t have a whole lot of them but we do have some, and one of my better strengths is my talent evaluation. I can evaluate young players and see out into the future if they’re going to be the type of player that can help us win a championship, and I think going over it In all my years, I was never wrong, ever. I was always right on everybody.”
Royals fans may recall how adamant Yost was that Hosmer and Mike Moustakas and others would be All-Stars, and they proved Yost right.
Yost mentioned others who had made an impression on him while in the minors when Yost was with the Brewers and Braves. That includes Tom Glavine, Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, Ben Sheets and Lorenzo Cain.
“The only one I ever missed out on was Whit Merrifield,” Yost added. “I never thought Whit Merrifield would be an All-Star. I thought Whit was gonna be a very, very solid major-league player, but I missed Whit. I never thought he would be the player that he is today, and he’s the one guy that kind of messed up my record.”
Yost was asked if he was surprised about the success of Merrifield, a two-time All-Star who has twice led the league in hits and is a three-time stolen base champion. A year ago, he tied for the AL lead in doubles.
“Yeah, I mean it did,” Yost said. “I always knew that Whit was going to be a good player. ... I’ve always had the ability to look at it and say to myself, ‘This kid’s going to be really, really good no matter what anybody else says.’ But Whit was the one guy that just overachieved on what I thought he could do.”
Doesn’t watch baseball
There was one other interesting part of the conversation. Yost was asked what he would tell a 15-year-old who said he was never watching baseball because it’s boring.
Yost’s answer might surprise people.
“Go to Harvard and be an analytic baseball guy. Then you’ll love it,” Yost said. “I don’t know what to tell him, I mean I don’t watch it either to be honest with you, young man. It’s hard for me to watch right now.”
Yost explained why.
“I can see at times where people don’t watch the game. I can watch the game for about two innings and then I turn it off. Because there’s times where guys are not executing, they’re not playing with the level I think that they can play with in the big leagues And I turn it off.
“So young man doesn’t want to watch the game, try playing the game. It’s funner to play it than it is to watch it.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 9:37 AM.
