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Re: Merrifield’s speed, we’ll see how he trends this year. I’m not ready to chalk all of his baserunning/SB decrease up to declining speed.
Looking at his stat cast page and sprint speed, he was at 28.6 this year (which is the same as Ozzie Albies, Javy Baez, Jose Altuve, and Ramel Tapia, guys who run really well, and better than many speed guys, including Jarrod Dyson, Ramon Laureano).
That’s down from a peak of 29.2 in 2017 (2 percent). He bounced from 29-29.2-29 from 16-18 as well. That’s not a significant decrease, really. He’s still a fast, fast dude.
There are offer factors that contributed to his drop in SB. He had more XBH hits this year. He was on base a little less. He had better run producers behind him in Dozier and Soler. He also probably saw a lot more fastballs when on base with Nicky Lopez hitting than he did the year before with Adaleberto Mondesi hitting 2nd.
It also should be mentioned that playing Of - which Merrifield did primarily this season - higher wear and tear on your body than manning 2B. That could be a factor as well.
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