5 takeaways from Padres-Yankees: Carlos Rodón delivers again, Jackson Merrill returns and more

For decades, a visit to the Bronx from the San Diego Padres was an ultra-rarity. The franchise’s first trip to face the Yankees came in the 1998 World Series, when the Padres were swept during the height of the late-’90s Yankees dynasty.

The introduction of interleague play in 1997 opened the possibility of such a matchup occurring in the regular season, yet the Yankees hosted the Padres just three times over the next 24 years. Nowadays, however, thanks to the balanced schedule MLB instituted in 2023, we’re guaranteed to see these bicoastal behemoths square off every season. And while the novelty of the matchup might be gone, there’s still ample intrigue in watching two heavyweights battle it out — and this week’s three-game series in the Bronx was no exception.

The Padres stayed hot Monday, with a dramatic 4-3 win that included an hour-long rain delay. The Yankees held a 2-0 lead at the time of the stoppage, but an eventful eighth inning featuring a highly entertaining Mike Shildt ejection and subsequent four-run rally resulted in a sixth straight win for San Diego. The Yankees bounced back Tuesday with some late-inning offense of their own, exploding for 10 runs in the seventh, highlighted by an Austin Wells grand slam. And the rubber match Wednesday was a certified nail-biter. Dylan Cease and Max Fried were both tremendous for seven innings, the teams traded blows in the late frames, and the Yankees emerged victorious with a walk-off sac fly from rookie catcher J.C. Escarra in the bottom of the 10th.

Here are five takeaways from this week’s trio of contests between contenders.

Carlos Rodón has been cooking

Before the Padres’ comeback soured the vibes in the Bronx on Monday, New York got another standout performance from Rodón, a continuation of what has arguably been his most consistent run of form since he became a Yankee. It was the third time in his past four starts that Rodón did not allow an earned run, a stark contrast to last season, when he had just five such starts — let alone his disastrous debut campaign in 2023, when he had none.

Opponents are hitting just .149 against Rodón this season, by far the lowest mark among qualified starting pitchers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto is second at .171). And while that will likely regress to some degree — Rodón’s .181 BABIP against is surely too good to be true — it’s broadly reflective of a pitcher who is performing at an exceptionally high level, and not in a way that is especially flukey.

Rodón leads all AL pitchers with 57 strikeouts in 48 ⅔ innings, but garnering whiffs has never been the issue. What’s more encouraging is how much more weak contact Rodón is inducing, exemplified by a 46.8% ground-ball rate (his highest since his rookie year) and a modest decrease in hard-hit rate allowed, from 40.9% last year to 37.8%. The introduction of a sinker to his arsenal, which he is throwing roughly 9% of the time, has certainly helped these efforts. After years of relying heavily on his four-seam fastball and slider, Rodón now has two additional weapons (changeup and sinker) to keep opponents off-balance.

The strike-throwing has remained shoddy at times — Rodón’s 10.6% walk rate is his highest since 2019 — but everything else appears to be trending in a positive direction for the 32-year-old southpaw. Few teams, if any, boast a duo of left-handers as formidable as the Yankees’ pair of Rodón and Max Fried.

Jackson Merrill’s star power cannot be overstated

Credit to the Padres for continuing to play well while Merrill was on the injured list due to a right hamstring strain, but Merrill’s absence from the lineup has been rather glaring at times, so it was great to see him back in the cleanup spot Tuesday. The 22-year-old showed zero signs of rust in his return, seamlessly picking up where he left off from a blistering start before his injury. He collected four hits in the two games, including a titanic, 417-foot blast off Fried on Wednesday. It was a rare blemish for Fried amid a marvelous beginning to his Yankees tenure.

Among starting pitchers, only Logan Webb has been more difficult to go yard against than Fried over the past six seasons, highlighting just how impressive Merrill’s homer was. But that fact alone doesn’t do Merrill justice. Since adding a sweeper in the 2023 season, Fried has thrown the pitch a total of 327 times in the big leagues. Just once has it resulted in a home run: Merrill on Wednesday.

In fact, there has been only one other instance of a Fried sweeper being hit 350 feet — and that was also Merrill, earlier in the same game, when he flew out to deep left-center field. These special swings against an elite arm at the top of his game are exciting reminders of how good Merrill is and the degree to which he can elevate this Padres lineup. It didn’t translate to Padres victories in his first couple of games back, but Merrill’s superstar presence is sure to make a big difference for San Diego in the long run.

Trent Grisham is making himself some money

Before Merrill took over as San Diego’s center fielder, the job belonged primarily to Grisham, who from 2020 to ‘23 started 441 games in center for the Padres before he was dealt to the Yankees in the Juan Soto trade. In 2024, although he spent the entire season on the major-league roster, Grisham played a fairly limited role in his first season as a Yankee, appearing in just 76 games as a down-lineup option against certain right-handers and a defensive replacement in the later innings. He did not play once during the Yankees’ run to the World Series.

Entering his second year in New York, there was minimal indication that Grisham’s role would increase beyond fourth-outfielder status. Even with Alex Verdugo gone, the addition of Cody Bellinger and the organization’s commitment to playing time for rookie Jasson Domínguez made it difficult to imagine how Grisham would make much of an impact. Yet here we are on May 8, and Grisham has more home runs (10) than he did all of last season (9) and, against all odds, has seemingly passed Domínguez on the depth chart.

Grisham cranked two homers against his former team this week, including a game-tying, pinch-hit blast Wednesday off San Diego’s top setup arm, Jason Adam. Grisham has always drawn a lot of walks and showcased impressive raw power in spurts, but now he’s combining those two core competencies with noticeably improved contact ability — his career strikeout rate was 26.3% before this season; it’s currently at 18.8% — enabling his overall production to soar.

If Grisham can sustain anything close to this level of performance for the remainder of the season, he could be primed to cash in this winter as he enters free agency at age 29. For now, the Yankees can enjoy the fruits of this unexpected breakout.

Has Cody Bellinger turned a corner?

Let’s stay in the Yankees’ outfield and turn our focus to Bellinger, who was expected to play a far bigger role than Grisham in the New York lineup but has been relatively quiet thus far. Bellinger hit his 200th career home run on Sunday against the Rays, a benchmark certainly worth celebrating, albeit one that puts his unlikely career trajectory in perspective: Bellinger hit an astonishing 111 home runs over his first three big-league seasons, inviting the possibility that by this point, in his ninth season, he’d be approaching 300 home runs, not 200.

More pertinently for the Yankees, it would be great if this milestone mash is a sign of a burgeoning power surge for Bellinger. Wednesday offered some evidence in support of that, as Bellinger launched his 201st career homer to tie the game and end Dylan Cease’s no-hit bid in the seventh.

That was Bellinger’s third homer in his past eight games after he hit just two in his first 26 games with the Yankees. He has raised his OPS more than 100 points over those eight games, from a woeful .574 to a more respectable (but still disappointing) .676. If Bellinger is to continue being slotted into the heart of the Yankees’ lineup, it’s crucial for him to find his groove or risk falling out of favor with a fan base not exactly known for its patience.

The Padres need more from Xander Bogaerts

In San Diego’s win Monday, it was Bogaerts who delivered the pivotal knock, with a two-run single against Luke Weaver to score two runs and give the Padres the 4-3 lead in the eighth inning.

Bogaerts finally hit his first home run of the season a week earlier, and Monday marked his third multi-hit game in his past six, suggesting that perhaps the veteran shortstop is making strides toward being a meaningful presence in the middle of San Diego’s lineup. But the rest of his time in the Bronx was less promising, with an 0-for-4 game Tuesday and a huge strikeout against Devin Williams with the bases loaded in the 10th inning Wednesday, squandering San Diego’s chance to retake the lead.

Last year, Bogaerts was a roughly league-average hitter while primarily playing second base, which was perfectly sufficient in the context of a roster that also featured Jurickson Profar and Ha-Seong Kim bolstering the team’s offense and defense, respectively. This year’s squad — especially with Jake Cronenworth still injured — doesn’t have nearly the same depth, which puts more pressure on Bogaerts to perform at a high level in support of the superstars atop the lineup.

So far, Bogaerts has struggled to meet that standard. His offensive production has underwhelmed (92 wRC+), and he has rated rather poorly on defense at shortstop. For a 32-year-old with another eight years and more than $200 million remaining on his contract, Bogaerts’ current form is troubling to say the least.