Whit Merrifield knew his time was up. The Royals’ second baseman finished 2018 as MLB's stolen base king, a year after he’d led the American League in that category but fell short of the overall title to Dee Gordon. But as Mitch Maier, the team’s outfield and baserunning coach, recalls, even as he was claiming the crown, Merrifield thought that his reign might be short—and brought to an end by a familiar face.
“He said, ‘I better win [in 2018], because with Mondesi, I don't know if I'm ever going to get a chance again,’” Maier says before a late April game against the Yankees in the Bronx.