When Whit Merrifield finally arrived with the Royals last season, it was with deep appreciation and a sense of mystery ahead.
As a ninth-round pick in 2010 who still wasn’t on the 40-man roster as the 2016 season began, after nearly six full years in the minor leagues, there had been nothing inevitable about his major-league debut.
Nor did he have any blueprint of what awaited him.
“Last year, I was trying to figure out where the kitchen was, where the training room was,” he said. “Had a lot of things going on.”
That soon came to include hitting .