Making it to Major League Baseball is hard, but staying there is harder. It’s a lesson five-year veteran outfielder Óscar Mercado has had drilled into him of late.
Mercado, who last played in the majors in 2023, grinded out 115 games in Triple-A for the Philadelphia Phillies organization this season. It was his second stint as a Phillie, but the one major league game Mercado played with Philadelphia ins the summer of 2022 now looks destined to remain the only one he sees in the cherry pinstripes.
After electing free agency in November, Mercado took over three months to find his next team. But on Friday, he officially joined the Arizona Diamondbacks, signing a minor-league contract, per the MLB.com transactions log.
Mercado’s Triple-A stats last season wouldn’t immediately suggest that he’s got a good shot at succeeding against big-league competition. He batted .249 with 11 home runs and a .742 OPS. In the majors, those would be good numbers, but the gap has never been wider between big-league and Triple-A pitching.
In 298 career major league games with the Cleveland Indians/Guardians, Phillies, and St. Louis Cardinals, Mercado owns a .237/.288/.389 slash line and 26 home runs. He finished eighth in Rookie of the Year voting for the Indians in 2019.
As he enters his age-31 season, Mercado knows his remaining opportunities to break back into the majors are likely to be limited. Picking a team like the Diamondbacks that has had a lot of turnover and injuries in the outfield was probably a wise move.
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