Pirates star's rookie season looked a lot like Jackson Merrill's 'historic' campaign

San Diego Padres rookie phenom Jackson Merrill has emerged as a possible candidate to win the National League Rookie of the Year award. The Pirates, on the other hand, have the current favorite to win the award in Paul Skenes, who polished off an historic rookie season with two ridiculous innings at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.

Merrill? His numbers weren't exactly unprecedented. A few years back, there was another rookie outfielder who put up similar numbers to Merrill.

In 2019, Bryan Reynolds finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting with a comparable season to Merrill, who some believe should win it this year. Let's take a look at how close these outfielders' rookie seasons were.

How close were the rookie seasons of Pirates star Bryan Reynolds and Padres rookie phenom Jackson Merrill?

A standout difference between these two players is their approaches at the plate. Reynolds had a walk percentage of 8.4%, while Merrill's percentage for 2024 was just 4.9%. On the other hand, Reynolds had a 22.2% strikeout percentage, and Merriill finished with a 17% rate. He puts the ball in play, but he's always looking to swing.

Being able to walk more helped Reynolds produce an on-base percentage of .377. Along with that, he had a batting average of .314 and a slugging percentage of .503. All three of these stats were better than what Merrill has produced this year, as he finished with a .292 batting average, a .326 on-base percentage, and a .500 slugging percentage. Very similar, but Reynolds has the edge in each of these categories.

Merrill had 24 home runs, 90 runs batted in, and stole 16 bases through 162 games of the Padres' season. All of these totals were higher than Reynolds' stats, as he finished with 16 home runs, 68 runs batted in, and just three stolen bases (under a different regime of MLB rules and base sizes, to be fair). Reynolds did have an edge in doubles, with 37 to Merrill's 31. They posted equal wRC+ marks of 130, which is significantly above average.

Defensively, Merrill finished with a higher OAA of 11, while Reynolds posted just 2 OAA. Defensive runs saved were flipped, though, as Reynolds finished with seven and Merrill had none.

Overall, these two outfielders were very similar in their rookie seasons. Although they were very close statistically, their first years featured differing levels of freshman competition, which resulted in Reynolds finishing fourth and Merrill potentially taking home the hardware. Should he, though?