Merrifield bids emotional farewell to Kansas City after trade to Toronto

Whit Merrifield woke up to a new life on August 3rd, 2022. The day after the Kansas City Royals traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays, the 33-year-old second baseman sat down and wrote a letter to the only organization he had ever known in professional baseball.

Merrifield had been a Royal since 2010, when the team drafted him in the ninth round. He made his major league debut six years later and never left. Over seven seasons in Kansas City, he became a two-time All-Star, accumulated 1,001 career hits, and set a franchise record by playing in 553 consecutive games before a toe injury finally stopped the streak in July. The numbers told one story. The letter told another.

"For the past 7 years, you have been my home," he wrote. "For the past 13 years, the Royals organization has been the only baseball family I've known." He described turning his dream into reality there—his first hit, his first home run, the brothers he found for life. "I became a man in Kansas City," he wrote. He promised that from the moment he pulled into the parking lot each day until the final out, he had given everything he had.

But the path to this farewell had been complicated. Just weeks earlier, Merrifield had missed a series against Toronto because he was unvaccinated against COVID-19, along with nine other Royals players. When the news broke, he told reporters that he might have reconsidered vaccination if the team were headed to the postseason. The comment ignited a firestorm across sports media and social media. People questioned his commitment to his teammates, his love for Kansas City, his judgment.

The backlash kept him awake at night. He called into 610 Sports Radio to clarify. "What really kept me up last night was people thinking I don't love Kansas City and I haven't really loved every minute that I've been in Kansas City," he said. He explained that his vaccination decision was personal, that he had always resisted medication when trainers offered it for minor injuries. He said his comments about the postseason were rooted in the business side of baseball—he had been hearing trade rumors. He insisted it was never a slight against his teammates or the struggling team, which sat in fourth place in their division.

Now, ironically, he had gotten his wish. Toronto was in the thick of the American League playoff race, on track to make the postseason. But the Blue Jays played in Canada, and Canada had strict rules: foreign nationals who were unvaccinated against COVID-19 could not enter the country except under limited exceptions requiring a 14-day quarantine. Unvaccinated players went on the restricted list—no pay, no service time accrual. The team's manager, John Schneider, said Wednesday that Toronto would not force Merrifield to get vaccinated. The Blue Jays were in the middle of a long road trip and wouldn't return home until August 12th. By then, Merrifield would have to decide whether the postseason he had mentioned was worth changing his mind.