SAN DIEGO — One week before his second big-league season, Jackson Merrill hinted at what was coming. It was a warm evening at the Padres’ spring training complex. A breeze was blowing. The weather, for late March in Arizona, was almost perfect. Still, Opening Day beckoned. “I’m ready to get out of here,” Merrill said.
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Minutes later, as he discussed the prospect of a long-term contract extension, the star center fielder spoke as if he was already back in San Diego.
“I want to be here,” Merrill said. “I’m not going to try and screw them and take all their money. … If you sign a longer deal, you want Year 6, 7 to come around, and you’ve got these people that we can sign and get on the team and bring with me, rather than sign a big deal and feel like you can’t get anybody else.”
Wednesday, almost a week into a dream start to his second season, Merrill signed a big deal that should leave ample room for the Padres to get other players. His new nine-year extension guarantees him $135 million but struck many around the sport as the definition of a team-friendly contract.
Meanwhile, inside an auditorium at Petco Park, Merrill saw the upside in his new fortune. He sat between Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller and manager Mike Shildt. The crowd in front of them included some of Merrill’s teammates, his coaches and members of the front office.
“I know there’s contracts out there that are beyond absurd. There’s super amounts of money,” Merrill, 21, said. “But having a relationship with a real human being and a real team like I have here, you can’t beat that. You can’t just sign for $700 million and want everything to be perfect. I’ve got people all around the clubhouse that are supporting me, supporting my family. They ask about my personal life every day. So, I’m just grateful for that. I know it’s gonna be the same way for the next nine years.”
It could end up being for longer than that. Merrill’s extension begins in 2026 and, according to league sources, includes a club option for 2035 that starts at $21 million. There are $30 million in incentives based on plate appearances. Each time Merrill reaches 500 plate appearances in a season, he will increase his annual salary from 2030-34 — and the 2035 option — by $1 million.
San Diego has been struck by Merrill Madness.
We have signed center fielder Jackson Merrill to a nine-year contract through the 2034 season with a club option for 2035. pic.twitter.com/FDw3D0aIcQ
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 2, 2025
The contract, which can max out at $204 million, contains more layers of potential mutual benefit. A top-10 finish in league MVP voting in any season also would bump Merrill’s future compensation. A top-five finish would convert the club option to a player option.
Notably, before 2035, there are no opt-outs.
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Merrill said Wednesday, less than four years after the Padres drafted him, he wanted to be a San Diegan from the moment he first met Preller. The Padres were the first organization to scout him. In 2021, Preller attempted to covertly watch the Maryland native play a road game for Severna Park High School. The general manager ended up being introduced to Josh Merrill, Jackson’s father.
“My dad thought he was an international scout for about a year,” Jackson Merrill said.
“(The Padres) believed in me from day one. They tried to keep me under wraps. I posted a picture on Instagram one time with an area scout, and he’s like, ‘Take it down right now.’”
Now, for a few years, they have been unable to hide him. Merrill quickly emerged as one of the organization’s best prospects, a possible five-tool shortstop with an ideal combination of work ethic and moxie. In 2022, the Padres discussed trading him for Shohei Ohtani, then for Juan Soto. Ohtani, the sport’s preeminent superstar, ended up staying put that summer. Soto, perhaps the sport’s best hitter, wound up in San Diego.
The Padres, as part of the cost, surrendered Merrill’s close friend James Wood. They went on to discover the upside in the fact that Merrill, then a Low-A player, was coming back from a wrist fracture.
“The only time you’re probably happy that a player is on the injured list was at that time,” Preller said.
It was months later, before Merrill’s High-A debut, that the Padres first raised the idea of a long-term major-league contract. Preller said Wednesday that, as a general manager, he had never attempted such a discussion so early. “But Jackson, pretty different kid, different person,” Preller added. The talks continued, off and on, for the next couple of years.
Then, in 2024, Merrill delivered the finest rookie season in franchise history. He finished ninth in National League MVP voting. He won a Silver Slugger Award as a converted shortstop playing center field for the first time in his life (aside from two games when he was 12). The Padres, and Merrill, got serious this past offseason. The talks ramped up in spring training.
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“I think the timing was better for everybody right now,” Merrill said. “I think last year was more of a year to get my feet underneath me to play baseball. Young kid in ‘The Show,’ it’s kind of hard to manage a lot of things on and off the field. So I think just waiting, and then now I have so much confidence and so much ability that I think it was the perfect time.”
Merrill’s payday, while providing him with generational wealth, ensures some flexibility for the Padres before he potentially ascends into an even higher tier of stardom. Last month, The Athletic’s Tim Britton projected that Merrill had earned a 15-year, $375 million extension, comparing him to Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez. Less than three years ago, Rodríguez was nearing the end of a similarly successful rookie season when he signed an extension that can max out at 15-plus years and more than $400 million.
Merrill likely will make less than half that, although he can test free agency in his early 30s.
“I am shocked he took that amount,” one rival executive said.
All along, however, Merrill has been vocal about what he describes as his top priority.
“Winning, and just winning only,” he said, when asked what he envisioned over the next decade. “There’s so much in the contract with money and all that, but my goal is to win. It’s always been to win. It’s always been to dominate with my boys on the field.”
Merrill, right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., third baseman Manny Machado and shortstop Xander Bogaerts are all signed, now, through at least 2033. The Padres’ collection of nine-figure contracts — Bogaerts’ and Machado’s, in particular — eventually could hinder efforts to sustain their status as a postseason contender.
But, after an unsettling offseason, the trajectory of the franchise again appears to be on an upswing. While a lawsuit contesting control of the franchise remains pending, the Padres have signed veteran starter Nick Pivetta and extended Merrill since John Seidler, the older brother of late owner Peter Seidler, was approved as control person. The Padres entered Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians with a 6-0 record, the best start in club history. Merrill was hitting .400 with a home run and at least one hit in every game.
Three innings in, and a few hours after signing his extension, he hit his second home run of the young season.
Jackson Merrill is a San Diego Padre. pic.twitter.com/TlkvZYArjW
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 2, 2025
“We talk about it all the time as a leadership team, that when fans of San Diego buy a ticket, they know who they’re going to come see today. They know they’re going to see excellence,” Preller said. “Jackson’s added to that big time here in the last few years. And I think having players that are spaced out a little bit, that was all a part of what we talked about.”
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Since he debuted in the majors before signing his extension, Merrill remains eligible to earn the Padres an early-round draft pick through Major League Baseball’s Prospect Promotion Incentive. All he and the organization would need is a top-three finish in this year’s MVP voting. Considering what Merrill has already achieved, it does not feel overly ambitious.
Regardless, Merrill says his focus will not change.
“I’m gonna play hard every day. I’m gonna play for a win. That’s what I did last year. It’s what I’m gonna do every day this year,” Merrill said. “It’s so much easier than playing for stats, playing for a Prospect — whatever it’s called.”
Still, Merrill knows a nine-figure contract will raise the stakes — for both himself and those around him. On that warm evening last month in Arizona, he spoke about the idea of signing a long-term deal with San Diego. He also spoke about the organization’s next wave of top prospects.
“It also comes with a lot of responsibility if you do that,” Merrill said. “You know, let me show (Leo) De Vries, let me show (Ethan) Salas, let me show Cobb Hightower. Let me show these kids down there how it’s done and how you get up here. You don’t stop working. You keep going. I want to be the guy in the weight room that if you walk in the weight room every morning, I’m there. I want to be there waiting for you.”
—Will Sammon contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)
