Why Jackson Merrill, a model of on-field consistency, has many different autographs

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Last season, his first in the big leagues, Jackson Merrill achieved rare consistency on the field.

Merrill, the San Diego Padres phenom, batted .292 with 24 home runs, including six tying or go-ahead blasts in the eighth inning or later. He encountered only one hitless streak longer than three games. (He ended it in early May at six games.) As a former shortstop learning center field on the fly, Merrill also committed just three errors.

Meanwhile, as his popularity soared, he attracted attention for the inconsistency of his autograph.

This particular phenomenon has come to light through the watchfulness of sports card collectors. The industry’s trove of autographed Merrill cards includes an unusually expansive array of distinct — and often nondescript — signatures. Some consist of a scribbled “J” and little else. Others contain multiple letters, small flourishes and even Merrill’s uniform number (3). Many of his autographs fall somewhere between these two ends of the spectrum.

Jackson Merrill’s autographs. That’s it. That’s the tweet.

Spent 2 minutes looking on eBay and found 8 different variations 🧐 pic.twitter.com/FUxXgouweL

— kasey (@kaseymcdd) January 14, 2025

It’s not uncommon for a professional athlete’s autograph to change over time. But a plethora of variations by one of baseball’s brightest young stars prompts the question: Why so many?

“Well, when you’re signing a box of 3,000 cards from Topps, you don’t want to sit there and have a long autograph,” Merrill, 21, said. “In the beginning, I was just doing a ‘J,’ and then it evolved a little bit. I kind of just wanted to change it on certain things, like certain more important items. Like, one-of-one stuff. If I was feeling nice one day, maybe I do a couple (more time-intensive autographs).

“But most of the time, dude, I just want to get in and get out,” Merrill added. “It’s not that I don’t care about cards and stuff. It’s just like, that’s not my thing, you know? If you didn’t have an interest in something, you wouldn’t want to do it, either. That’s just kind of how I do it.”

Merrill never has considered himself much of a card collector. He recalled in an interview last summer having a “binder when I was little, but I didn’t know what good cards were.” The topic had been raised by a reporter inquiring about a case of mistaken identity on Merrill’s first card as a pro ballplayer; Isaac Frye, a one-time travel-ball teammate who has never spoken with Merrill, is pictured on the front.

“I don’t even sign that thing half the time,” Merrill said.

Yet, Merrill does take time to sign cards and other items for fans, especially younger supporters and those who interact with him in person. He often is the first Padres player at the ballpark, allowing him to complete his daily preparation before he engages with a crowd. On a recent early evening at the team’s spring training complex in Arizona, Merrill was the last player off the practice field, having gone through a workout and obliged a horde of well-wishers and autograph seekers.

And though he may not be a card enthusiast, he can generally spot the more valuable collectibles.

“I think that the more important stuff is worth more, so it should have a better signature,” Merrill said. “That’s just my opinion.”

Why not find a middle ground for, well, just about everything?

“I have had a new one lately, and it’s an evolved, like, version of both,” Merrill said. “It’s a ‘J,’ kind of, like, a scribble, and then an ‘M’ and a swoosh, dot, three. … It’s easier. It’s not disrespectful, I guess, except (to) card collectors who hate me.”

Jackson Merrill 2025 Series 1 Real One auto redemptions are in and he used his “good signature”… even on the base.

The mystery continues…@CardPurchaser pic.twitter.com/X810Cbujk7

— Mike Walsh (@mwalsh2) March 17, 2025

Card collectors who hate him?

“Oh, yeah, they’re mad at me, and I’m like, I’m not even doing anything wrong,” Merrill said. “Everybody saw that I threw a box of cards away in Double A, but I really didn’t. That wasn’t me.”

Merrill had been in possession of those cards, at least for a little while. Panini, one of the sports card industry’s leading manufacturers, mailed him a box of cards and stickers to sign in 2023 when Merrill was a top prospect with the Padres’ Double-A club in San Antonio. At the end of that minor-league season, a Reddit user posted photos of the unsigned cards, saying they had been found in a trash compactor at an apartment complex.

Merrill says he was not the one who put them there.

“I would never throw away cards,” he said. “I literally think I might have just left them by accident, and they just threw them away. But it wasn’t like — I was going to (sign) them. … That’s what they pay me for. Why would you throw away cards you can make money off of? It makes no sense.

“So, after that, people have just been on me about my autograph and how I don’t like card people. It’s not that, dude. I just don’t have an interest in it.”

Still, interest in Merrill — and his cards — keeps rising. The two highest Merrill card sales ever occurred in March. A Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph card numbered to five sold for $15,000 on March 18, nearly $2,000 more than the same type of card sold for in September. Earlier in March, a one-of-a-kind 2024 Topps Chrome Update Triple Autograph card featuring Merrill and fellow 2024 rookies Jackson Holliday and Jackson Chourio went for more than $17,000.

It’s early, but at least on the field, Merrill could end up as the most valuable Jackson in 2025. He entered Wednesday’s meeting with the Cleveland Guardians with a .4oo average and at least one hit in each of his first six games this season. While his autograph continues to evolve, consistency is becoming another of his trademarks.

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(Top photo: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images)

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