If you tried to design the best baseball player in a laboratory I’m pretty sure you’d get Whit Merrifield. It’s not that he’s literally the best player in baseball; that’s obviously Mike Trout. But the thing about Whit is that he’s quite nearly the most perfect compromise possible in a human baseball player.
He plays decent defense at any position, he hits for a decent average, he has some pop, he’s got speed. But he’s got intangibles, too. The grit crowd loves him because he runs hard every play and he looks like he’s running hard.