The Toronto Blue Jays made a big trade deadline splash in acquiring former Kansas City Royals star Whit Merrifield. It was somewhat of a risky trade for the Blue Jays, considering Merrifield was unvaccinated and had just missed their recent series against the Royals in Toronto due to the COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. Amid the speculation about his vaccination status after the trade, Merrifield cleared the air with a huge revelation that bodes well for the Blue Jays.
Via Adren Zwelling of Sportsnet, Merrifield revealed he is now vaccinated and will be joining the Blue Jays in Toronto on Thursday.
Blue Jays IF/OF Whit Merrifield says he is vaccinated: “I’ll be in Toronto with the team on Thursday.”
— Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) August 4, 2022
Only a few weeks ago, Merrifield was unvaccinated and forced to miss Kansas City's series against the Blue Jays. Fast forward to the deadline, Merrifield was shipped off the very team whose stadium he was unable to travel to. Obviously, that presented some level of risk for the Blue Jays, as they would need to convince Merrifield to get the vaccine if he wanted to play in home games.
It seems they were successful in doing so, as Merrifield revealed Thursday ahead of his Blue Jays debut that he is in fact vaccinated now and should have no availability issues going forward.
That's obviously a huge boost for the Jays, as their risky deadline acquisition will not be a part-time player for them, but instead will be available every day.
It has been something of a down year for Whit Merrifield in 2022. The 33-year-old second baseman has recorded a -0.2 WAR and is slashing just .240/.290/.352 with six home runs, 42 RBI, and 15 stolen bases across 95 games.
Merrifield had spent the first seven years of his big-league career with the Royals before getting shipped off at the trade deadline earlier in the week. Now that his vaccination status is cleared up, Blue Jays fans can expect to see Merrifield as a mainstay in the starting lineup.
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