The two youngest players on the San Diego Padres roster are playing their best baseball when it means the most for the Friars.
Center fielder Jackson Merrill, 23, and right-handed reliever Bradgley Rodriguez, 22, are significantly younger than any other player, even rookie outfielder Jase Bowen, who is 25.
Merrill broke onto the roster in 2024 after impressing Padres coaches and players with his play during Spring Training. He was drafted in 2021 as the Padres’ first-round pick and spent three seasons
working from the ACL Padres through the A and Double-A teams.
Invited to 2024 Spring Training camp as a shortstop, the toolsy then-19-year-old switched from the infield to the outfield at the start of camp without any previous pro experience playing in center.
Making it look easy, Merrill was the starting center fielder on the opening day of the season.
Rodriguez was signed out of Venezuela in 2021 as an 18-year-old. He injured his elbow in 2022 and did not play again until late in the 2023 season with the Venezuelan Winter League. He started 2024 in Single-A Lake Elsinore and finished the season with High-A Fort Wayne.
Rodriguez was invited to Spring Training in 2025 but started the regular season with Double-A San Antonio. He had two call-ups to San Diego during that season, making seven appearances for a 1.17 ERA.
Both Merrill and Rodriguez had short minor league careers. Merrill played in 202 games as a Padres prospect while Rodriguez appeared in 89 games and 123.3 innings over three seasons.
Jackson Merrill has early success
In his 2024 rookie season, Merrill played in 156 games with a .292 average and .826 OPS. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting and was an All-Star in his first season. He was NL Rookie of the Month twice during the year.
In his sophomore season, Merrill started well but suffered a hamstring strain in early April and missed almost a month due to the injury. In his first game back, Merrill suffered a concussion sliding into second base and went back on the injured list under the concussion protocol.
After spending a month and a half on the IL, Merrill was activated on June 22.
The next two months allowed the center fielder to get back into the rhythm of the season, and then he suffered a sprained ankle and went back on the injured list on Aug. 23. Merrill returned on Sept. 1, finishing the season healthy.
For the year, Merrill played in 115 games around the three injuries. He didn’t have any sustained success; it wasn’t a quality test to determine if he would fall victim to a sophomore slump.
To begin the 2026 season, Merrill struggled through the first three-plus months, chasing pitches outside the zone, missing pitches in the zone, and exceeding his previous whiff and strikeout percentages. He looked the picture of a player experiencing said sophomore slump.
When the calendar changed to July, Merrill turned his season around.
Hitting .300/.330/.530, Merrill hit two doubles, seven homers and had 17 RBI. For the first eight games of August, Merrill is hitting .344/.382/.625 with a double, a triple, a home run and 10 RBI. He is chasing less often, striking out less and making hard contact.
Merrill also has 23 stolen bases in 25 attempts.
In the Aug. 8 Padres daily newsletter, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported the 1.087 OPS accumulated by Merrill since July 19. During that time, he has 18 RBI and has scored 15 runs, the fifth-highest total in MLB.
Merrill is showing that his rookie season was not a fluke.
Bradgley Rodriguez is a budding star
During his 2025 season, Rodriguez also spent some time on the injured list. He made his debut in May with the Padres for one game then was sent back to the minors. From July to mid-September, Rodriguez had to be placed on the IL on July 9 and was activated on Aug. 22. After only three weeks back on the El Paso roster, Rodriguez was called up to the Padres for the second time. This time he pitched in six games, allowing one earned run over seven appearances in total.
Rodriguez had a 1.17 ERA for San Diego and a 3.19 ERA in 36.2 innings for El Paso and Double-A San Antonio. The most he has pitched as a pro is 61.1 innings in 2024. Between the minors and San Diego last year, he totaled 43.2 innings.
In 2026, Rodriguez has a 2.29 ERA in 51 innings pitched with 53 strikeouts to 16 walks. He began the season in lower-leverage spots and has been advanced to high-leverage situations, especially since the loss of both Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada to injury at times.
He has also pitched in multi-inning situations but it does appear that the Padres would prefer to protect him from the extended outings we have seen from both Adrion Morejón and Mason Miller.
In 2025, Rodriguez featured a fastball that averaged 98 mph, a sinker, a changeup and a cutter. He had an excellent 29% K rate but didn’t pitch enough with the Padres to qualify for league stats.
In 2026, Rodriguez features his changeup 43% of the time, contrasting with his fastball that tops out at almost 101 mph (25%). He throws his 98 mph sinker 24% of the time and has a slider instead of a cutter (8%). He misses bats, gets lots of ground balls, and is in the 74 and 77 percentile in whiff and K rates in MLB.
In July, FanGraphs picked Rodriguez as the reliever to watch in the Padres bullpen. With his age and repertoire, Michael Baumann of FanGraphs is excited for his future.
Of the pitchers in the Padres pen, Jason Adam and Adrián Morejón are slated to reach free agency after the season. Morejon would be a huge loss and all Padres fans should hope the organization can figure out a way to extend him.
Bradgley Rodriguez has already shown that he has what it takes to take his place as a valuable member of the bullpen.
