While being picked in the ninth round is a pretty nice accomplishment, it is definitely not a glamour pick. For the first seven years of his minor league career, “Two-Hit Whit” (except for an outlier .319/.371/.840 slash split between Northwest Arkansas and Omaha in 2014) never put together a great offensive season. Even in 2016 when he made a splash in half a season with the Kansas City Royals, Whit Merrifield was not set on the MLB roster as he was shipped back to AAA.
Truly amazing, considering how things have turned out, is that Merrifield was available to any team via the Rule 5 Draft and not one club felt he was worth taking a risk on.