Matt Mervis Returns To The Cubs, Will He Mash This Time?

On Tuesday afternoon, the Cubs recalled first baseman Matt Mervis to Wrigley Field. Long rumored to be on the trade block (especially after the Michael Busch acquisition), the Cubs held onto the lefty masher throughout the offseason and are giving him his second shot at MLB relevance. I wrote earlier this offseason about Matt Mervis and how his changes in 2023 left a lot to be desired, but that was back in January. Have things changed for the man named "Mash"? 

It's no secret Mervis struggled once he was called up last season. Despite having a low-70s contact rate in Triple-A, the first baseman struggled to maintain that level of contact the rest of the season. In the majors, he made contact on just 66.7% of his swings, and after returning to Triple-A, saw his contact rate there dip below 70% as well. While we can expect high-slug hitters to have lower contact rates, these are bottom-of-the-barrel rates and are problematic. Mervis especially struggled with contact rates against left-handed pitching, posting a sub-60% contact rate against southpaws on the season, all levels combined. 

Looking at Mervis' 2024 season, there are mixed results when it comes to his contact rate. First, the bad: his contact rate thus far in Triple-A this year is 68%, which is nearly 4% lower than the Triple-A league average. His in-zone whiff percentage is also elevated, sitting at around 2% higher than the league average. Neither of these are moving in the right direction. You can see in the charts above that where he's missing has changed a bit: he's missing much more up, but much less in (more on this later). This shows where the whiff rates are up, and the zones are changing. 

Enough with the negativity; let's talk about the positives. The first and probably largest positive is that he's chasing way less. He has dropped his chase rate from 27% to 22%. That's huge. If you're only going to make contact with 68% of the pitches you swing at, you better make 'em count. He's also seen positive movement in his ability to hit lefties, going from someone who had that sub 60% contact rate up to 72% (it's only 25 PAs, so we're talking small sample size, but it's positive movement).

Keeping the positive vibes up on Matt Mervis, we can see that his exit velocity and his contact type have improved. He's improved his average exit velocity from roughly 86mph to 93.8mph while reducing the amount of ground balls he's hit by 4%. He's also pulling the ball more, likely aiding the exit velocity jump. Perhaps even more encouraging is where he's making exit velocity gains. Below are three exit-velocity-heat maps—one from before his call-up in 2023, one after (Triple-A), and then today. 

What I think is important is to note the progression. Mervis has worked to expand the areas where he's making hard contact. Prior to his call-up, there was a very small area in which he was making strong contact. We can see that thus far, in 2024, that area has expanded. He's making much harder contact inside on his hands and up. What's interesting to see as well is that his plate approach has changed a bit. His swing rate remains similar, but his swing decisions seem to have changed. 

The charts above showcase how Matt Mervis has changed his swing decisions; he's making more and more of an effort to attack pitches a bit lower and covering a bit more of the plate. This likely resulted in better exit velocities across the board, which is why the charts are not so concentrated in the middle of the zone. This also seems to be having a positive effect on his barrel rate. This correlates with the miss rates; he's really punishing pitches inside this year like he hadn't before, possibly sacrificing hitting the high pitches a bit.

So, what does it all boil down to? There has been a change in how Matt Mervis does things at the plate. He's making roughly the same amount of contact, but where he's making contact and, more importantly, where he's not chasing have changed. Thus far, this has resulted in more barrels, more pulls, harder-hit baseballs, and better plate coverage. It'd be easy to look just at the contact rate and say that maybe things haven't changed that much, but this seems like a better version of the first baseman. This fills me with confidence that things are changing for the better, and he'll have more success the second time around. With that said, I want to caution one thing: it's impossible to tell if this is a processing change or that Mervis has nearly 700 PAs at the Triple-A level under his belt, and he's just...comfortable. For Mash's sake, I'm glad he's getting another chance...he could have taken his demotion in a negative way, but I see a lot of positive changes under the hood. 

What do you expect from Matt Mervis this time around? Is this data encouraging? Or do you think he's just a Quadruple-A player?