Whit Merrifield News: Retires from baseball

Merrifield announced Tuesday that he has retired from baseball after a nine-year major-league career, Robert Murray of FanSided.com reports.

Merrifield last played with Atlanta in 2024, and he spent the entirety of the 2025 campaign to this point as a free agent. The 36-year-old posted a career .280/.328/.413 slash line with 94 home runs, 485 RBI, 632 runs scored and 218 stolen bases over 1,147 career games across nine seasons with the Royals, Blue Jays, Phillies and Atlanta. His 174 stolen bases with the Royals ranks seventh all-time in franchise history, while his .286 career average with Kansas City is good for 13th-best. Merrifield was also selected as an All-Star in 2019, 2021 and 2023, and he led baseball in hits in both 2018 (192) and 2019 (206).