Jackson Merrill received two fifth-place votes and was named on 19 of 30 MVP ballots after he lost the Rookie of the Year award to Pirates’ pitcher Paul Skenes earlier this week.

Merrill finished ninth in the National League Most Valuable Player voting after making his first MLB season in 2024. Skenes, the winner of the NL Rookie of the Year award over Merrill, received just one top-10 vote and finished 19th overall.

Merrill played center field for the first time during Spring Training a month before the season began and was thrust into the Padres’ starting lineup as the Opening Day center fielder in Korea on March 20.

He finished the season appearing in 156 of 162 games with a .292/.326/.500 slash line, 24 homers, 90 RBI and 16 stolen bases. Merrill led all NL rookies in batting average, slugging percentage, home runs, RBI, hits (162) and triples (6).

Skenes won the Rookie of the Year award with 23 first-place votes with a 1.96 ERA, 2.45 FIP and 214 ERA+ over 133 innings, making 23 starts. Skenes and Merrill were top-2 on all 30 Rookie of the Year ballots.

For the Padres, Jurickson Profar, Manny Machado, Luis Arraez and Dylan Cease also received MVP votes. Profar received the highest vote of any Padres, earning a fourth-place vote for his breakout season in the Padres’ outfield alongside Merrill.

Four of the five players who received votes remain under contract in the 2025 season with Profar being the only free agent, who has drawn interest from multiple teams, per reports.