A natural hitter, Yermín had to learn to hustle

Yermin Mercedes’ baseball dreams should have perished, like so many others do, under a blazing Caribbean sun, the day he was cut from the Dominican Summer League. They should certainly have withered in the high deserts of the American Southwest, where an independent league hosted his desperate bid to get back into the game. Any remaining embers should have fizzled out in some far-flung farm system.

Instead, on April 2, in his first Major League start, a 28-year-old Mercedes went 5-for-5 as the designated hitter for the White Sox. The following night, the unlikely rookie notched hits in his first three at-bats. No other player in the modern era (since 1900) has ever begun a season with hits in each of his first eight at-bats. The Dominican native was named American League Rookie of the Month after posting a .415/.455/.659 line with a 1.113 OPS and five home runs in 22 games in April, and he entered Tuesday hitting an AL-best .353.

Hit, hit, hit. It’s what Mercedes knows how to do, and what he knows he can do, which has given him the tenacity to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles throughout his career -- some, apparently, of his own creation.

Mercedes’ uphill path to the Major Leagues began in August 2013 when, as a 20-year-old catcher, he was released by the rookie-level DSL Nationals despite having batted .296 in 123 games over three seasons. Johnny Dipuglia, Washington’s assistant general manager of international operations, who signed Mercedes in 2011, suggested to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic that Mercedes’ behavior was a factor in the team’s decision to cut him.

“He had some discipline problems over here, I won’t deny that,” Dipuglia told Rosenthal last month, adding, “For him to get to the big leagues after the struggles he had, it shows me he had a lot more mental fortitude than I thought he did.”

Indeed, Mercedes could have dwelled on his failure. Instead, propelled by an unwavering faith in his own ability, Mercedes in 2014 took his potent bat to the independent Pecos League, where he and several other Dominican players signed with the Douglas Diablos of Arizona. When that didn’t work out, Darrell Carrillo, who managed the New Mexico-based White Sand Pupfish at the time, took Mercedes on.

“I asked him to help me, to please let me be on the team, that I was a kid going after his dream,” Mercedes said in Spanish. “I didn’t belong to any league. That was my only chance.”

It speaks to Mercedes’ determination that he was willing to toil in obscurity in a league where he struggled with housing and barely made any money.

“They make, like, $100 a week,” says Carrillo. “It’s a tough living. Everything's tough there. And they get frustrated and they want to get out. He ended up staying the whole summer with us, finishing off the season, had a great season. Just very confident.”

Even after his humbling experience in the Nationals' system, Mercedes didn’t always help his own cause. Carrillo says he kicked Mercedes off the Pupfish at one point because the backstop walked to reach a passed ball. He saw it as a turning point for the young catcher.

“He came and talked to me. We figured it out, and he never walked again on the field, he always hustled. I don't know if that helped him or hurt him. I think he was surprised that I did that,” says Carrillo.

Mercedes rewarded Carrillo and the Pupfish by posting numbers that were absurd even for the Pecos League: a .417 average with 15 homers and 13 doubles in 37 games. That summer, he also played six games for the Texas-based San Angelo Colts of another indy circuit, United League Baseball. In total, he batted .385/.424/.701 with 17 home runs for three independent teams in 2014.

“All around, he was a great kid,” says Carrillo. “Did great for us, played anywhere you asked him to, and his attitude after I kicked him off the team was really good. Kicked him off the team for one day. And you know, we sat down and talked. I just told him, ‘You know, you don't walk on the field, you run and you hustle. If you can’t do that, you won’t play for me.’ He never did it again and we had a great season. Next thing I know he's in the big leagues.”

These days, when Carrillo sees Mercedes on TV, he sees the same player he saw seven years ago.

“Off the bat it was just a big popping noise,” adds Carrillo. “You could tell that he got the best part of the bat possible. Yermín was very, very confident on the field. He did the same stuff.”

After his strong showing at the independent level, Mercedes signed a Minor League deal with the Orioles in September 2014, and was selected by the Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Winter League. Even after a solid season in Class A in 2015, Mercedes was far down on Licey’s depth chart that winter. There too, his confidence and his hitting allowed him to create a path for himself where there wasn’t one.

“He wanted to play,” his former manager with Licey, Lino Rivera, recalls in Spanish. “He would say to me, ‘Let me play. I won’t make you look bad.’ That was every day.”

Rivera was so impressed with Mercedes’ hitting and what he calls the catcher’s “swag” that he lobbied for the unproven backstop to be included on Licey’s active roster.

“I liked that, and his bat,” says Rivera. “An aggressive bat. An explosive bat. That caught my attention.”

Rivera’s general manager, former Major League manager Manny Acta, and the rest of the Licey front office, had to be convinced that Mercedes deserved playing time. In the end, Rivera’s gamble paid off, as Mercedes wound up hitting .357 with an .844 OPS in 18 games for Licey during the 2015-16 season.

For Mercedes, it was another notch in his belt.

“They were really happy with the work that I did. And that really helped a lot,” said Mercedes. “It helped because over there we have a league that gives you confidence.”

Nonetheless, Rivera admits that he wasn’t sure that Mercedes would make it to the Majors because of his defense, which, save for his strong throwing arm, is considered below average.

“His bat has always stood out more than his defense,” says Rivera.

Certainly, Mercedes’ lack of a strong defensive position and lingering questions about his makeup could have confined him to the Minor Leagues. He had spent three years in the Orioles’ farm system when the White Sox claimed him in December 2017 during the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. There, his bat once again changed the course of his career: In 2019, his most recent Minor League season, he slashed .310/.386/.647 with 12 doubles, 17 home runs and 62 RBIs in 53 games for Triple-A Charlotte.

Last year, after a hot Cactus League showing that was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he made his Major League debut with the White Sox in August and got a single at-bat.

So far this season, while serving as Chicago's DH, Mercedes has posed for photos with Albert Pujols and Mike Trout. He has acquired a nickname -- The Yerminator -- that couldn’t be any cooler, and there is now a burger in Chicago named after him. On top of it all, he’s key cog on a White Sox team that entered Tuesday in first place in the AL Central.

Fate has conspired to make that happen. After all, it was a devastating injury to star outfielder Eloy Jiménez that opened a spot on Chicago’s Opening Day roster for Mercedes. But Mercedes is where he is right now because he knows he can hit, and because he stubbornly set out to prove it.

Says Rivera, “There’s a saying that goes, ‘If he can hit, they’re going to find a position for him.’ And that’s the case with Yermín Mercedes.”