Whit Merrifield deserves an ovation in his return to KC. But there’s much more to it
Some 257 days ago, I sat at the computer and wrote a column encapsulated by this headline:
Why it’s time for the Kansas City Royals to trade Whit Merrifield.
It was about more than baseball. Almost exclusively more than baseball, actually. A player had publicized to the world that he was willing to go an extra mile (or, ahem, more like walking a few short steps) for a future team than he would the one currently signing his paychecks. That erased any gray area.
But we’re not here to revisit those circumstances, at least not entirely. Rather, I mentioned all of that to put the next sentence into the proper context.
Merrifield deserves a loud ovation Monday night at Kauffman Stadium.
He will make his return to Kansas City when the Blue Jays visit town for a four-game series. It’s not a lock he will be in the starting lineup Monday; Merrifield started two of the Jays’ three games in St. Louis this week.
The events preceding his departure are still fresh, perhaps still raw for some. He had refused to take the COVID-19 vaccination, keeping him home as his teammates made a trip to Toronto, before he then stated he’d be willing to get the shot if he was on a team in playoff contention.
You know all this. It’s been a mere nine months, so I’m not going to tell you that you should be over it by now — nor am I providing a required reaction as though it’s a homework assignment — but if we’re talking what’s deserved, well, he’s earned an ovation.
A return is more symbolic of the bigger picture — of the full picture — than it is the ending. And the full picture illuminates a player emblematic of the city he represented for more than six seasons, even if he didn’t represent it quite so well in the final few weeks. An underdog who wanted nothing more than to stop having a reason to be known as one. A success story more than people realized, even absent the team’s success. A guy who gave it everything he had — well, except the vaccination, of course.
Truth be told, I’d planned for that to be the gist of this column. But then it hit me — as we consider the reaction he should receive or the reaction he might receive, there’s actually a third reality. One that has little to do with Merrifield and everything to do with the Royals.
That reaction?
Meh.
There’s a genuine question of whether there will be much of a reaction at all Monday — or whenever he gets his first plate appearance — because there remains a more obvious question of how many will even be there to provide such a reaction. And that’s more emblematic of the state of the Royals than whether the cheers drown out any potential boos.
The return of Whit Merrifield should be a thing this week, and maybe in a sense it still is, but it has undoubtedly already taken a back seat to the story of a lousy opening weekend. And if you’re following closely, it is an unsurprisingly lousy opening weekend in the collective minds of a fan base that has come to expect this kind of thing and then waits to be proven otherwise.
We’re three games in. Three. Yet the Royals are already in a stage of having to work for any reaction at all — even to the return of baseball. This study is unscientific, but I can’t imagine many other cities began their seasons with two bobblehead giveaways in the first two games of the season. There was gorgeous weather Sunday afternoon, and the Royals welcomed a crowd of 14,589. Announced. They were outdrawn by the Oakland A’s.
They are 0-3, and the offense has had a masterful way of making a two-run deficit feel like Billy Butler trying to chase down Terrance Gore in a foot race. Across three games, the Royals have 12 hits, four runs and zero wins. The bright spot of the initial two games — the bullpen — was dismantled Sunday. The ‘pen allowed five runs, and left closer Scott Barlow to throw mop-up duty because, hey, the guy needs some work.
We’ve taken a bit of a right turn from Whit Merrifield, I realize, but we’ll get back there. The Royals needed something positive in the early weeks, or even days, of the season. As they are trying to get this whole thing back on course, they need something to throw the feelings of the past six-plus years off-course.
And that’s the relation to Merrifield. His return has come quickly on the heels of his departure, but it’s an unwanted reminder of how long those feelings have persisted. Heck, he was an ongoing, constant reminder of how starved that clubhouse was to turn it around.
He’s gone now. Kansas City is stuck with the craving.
It could still come in 2023. The season is precisely 1.9% exhausted.
But did the Royals have to so quickly refresh the memory of how the full 100% transpired in 2022?
That will be the foremost thought Monday. The Royals are in Series No. 2 still looking for Win No. 1.
Really, Merrifield ought to be applauded Monday for that fight to turn it around — even if he’s to blame that the applause couldn’t come when it became all but obvious his Kansas City tenure would end.
Those he left behind still wait for the familiar feelings of that tenure to end, too.