The San Diego Padres have a superstar on their hands in Jackson Merrill. After putting together a Rookie of the Year campaign in the regular season, he made franchise history in his first postseason game. He is the youngest player in Padres history to record a playoff hit, according to MLB Pipeline.

Merrill was a shortstop prospect who came in and stabilized the Padres' outfield this season. After trading Juan Soto and Trent Grisham to the Yankees, they needed outfielders. Merrill stepped up and played 149 games in centerfield while dominating at the plate. His .292 batting average was second on the team and his .826 OPS was third.

Merrill is not favored for the Rookie of the Year award. Not even a 90 RBI season could beat out Paul Skenes' 1.96 ERA. But Merrill now gets the postseason bump for casual fans across the country and performing well in October will make him a star. The Padres are already full of them, with Fernando Tatis, Xander Bogaerts, and Manny Machado on the roster as well.

Jackson Merrill can lead the Padres to the World Series

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With no teams over 100 wins in Major League Baseball, the field is wide open for anyone to make the World Series. That includes the Padres, who enter the postseason as one of the hottest teams in baseball. Since the All-Star break, they are 43-20, by far the best mark in the league. Merrill is hitting .316 with 12 home runs and 44 RBIs in that stretch.

While they were not able to catch the Dodgers in the standings, they fared well against the NL West champions this season. The Padres went 8-5 against them, which included winning the game that clinched their playoff berth. If they beat the Braves in the Wild Card Series, San Diego will play LA in a best-of-five Division Series.

Don't expect Jackson Merrill to shy away from the spotlight this October. He has shown this year that he can shine in the big moments. He became the first rookie to have multiple games with a game-tying or go-ahead home run in a multi-home run game. While that is an ultra-specific mark he set, it shows how clutch he is and how unafraid he is of the big moment.

The Padres play Game 2 of the Wild Card Series on Tuesday night and if they win, they will advance to play the Dodgers. They have been to the National League Championship Series as recently as 2022 but have not made the World Series since 1998. Merrill and crew are looking to bring the first title to San Diego.