Royals Executive ‘Disgusted’ by Player’s Vaccine Remarks

Whit Merrifield’s comments on the vaccine is receiving some backlash.

Two-time All-Star Whit Merrifield was among the many players who explained their decision after the news broke that that 10 of their players wouldn’t be able to play in a road series against the Toronto Blue Jays because they are unvaccinated, but he was the only one who implied the decision was conditional on playing for a contender:

From Anne Rogers of MLB.com:

“Right or wrong, I didn’t do it on a whim. It’s been a long thought process. Because I understand what Canada has in place right now. That’s the only reason that I would think about getting it at this point, is to go to Canada. That might change down the road. Something happens and I happen to get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the postseason, maybe that changes. But as we sit here right now, I’m comfortable in my decision, my teammates support me, support the rest of the guys in here who have made that decision, and that’s that.”

Whit Merrifield said his decision to not get vaccinated is a personal choice based on research and conversations.

He has sat the last 4 games with a big toe bone bruise but said it's progressing well and he might have played by the end of the Toronto series if he was going. pic.twitter.com/jUGOpsR3wZ

— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) July 13, 2022

Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore said he believed Merrifield, who is currently hitting 240/.292/.343 with five home runs, wasn’t alone in not bothering with the vaccine as long as the Royals are in the AL Central basement. Moore discussed the situation on The Program with Soren Petro and said he was “disgusted” when he heard Merrifield’s comments, but revealed Merrifield had apologized for how he explained the decision:

“It’s very difficult at times to articulate feelings and emotions. Sometimes, it just comes out wrong. When I first heard that, I was very disappointed. Pretty disgusted, truthfully. But I also know that’s not who Whit is. And as I communicated with Whit about that, he made it very clear he was sorry for how that came out. I have to accept that and move on. I’m not going to kick him when he’s down, because I do know what Whit Merrifield has meant to our team, the great work he does in this community and I just think it was a very poor choice of words.

“He’ll learn from that and we all will. It’s unfortunate, but we’ve gotta try to move on from it . Whit will get an opportunity to discuss that statement at some point in time.”

Moore confirmed that Merrifield would be made available to discuss his statement after the All-Star break.

Getting the vaccine should have nothing to do with baseball records, SMH.

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