Yermin Mercedes playing with the Giants in 2022. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
Yermin Mercedes, 31, was born in La Romana, Dominican Republic, and signed with the Kansas City Monarchs of the American Association on April 2, the franchise announced on their X account.
🚨ROSTER ALERT🚨
We have signed big leaguer, Yermín Mercedes to the ball club. This guy is going to bring some power to the line up.
Read more here > https://t.co/CzFblN9An5 pic.twitter.com/M1mv0HdHFB
— Kansas City Monarchs (@kscitymonarchs) April 2, 2024
Mercedes has played in three MLB seasons with the Chicago White Sox from 2020-21 and the San Francisco Giants in 2022.
During the 2023-24 LIDOM season with the Toros del Este, Mercedes played in 26 games and hit .170 with 114 plate appearances recording 17 hits, five doubles, one home run, 10 RBI, 13 walks, and 24 strikeouts.
Last season, Mercedes started the year with the Acereros de Monclova in Liga Mexicana de Beisbol before he was released on May 15, 2023, and went to Venezuela to play with the Centauros de La Guaira in the Liga Mayor de Béisbol Profesional.
In Mexico, Mercedes hit .236, playing in 20 games with 84 plate appearances, recording 17 hits, five doubles, two home runs, eight RBI, 12 walks, and 21 strikeouts before he was released and took his talents to Venezuela.
During his time in LMBP, he hit .381 playing in 31 games with 105 at-bats, smacking 40 hits, four home runs, 27 RBI, 11 walks, 20 strikeouts, and six stolen bases.
In the LMBP semifinals, Mercedes hit .235 with 17 at-bats, recording four hits, four RBI, one walk, and five strikeouts.
The Centauros de La Guaira lost in four games in the best-of-five semifinals to the 2023 champion, Marineros de Carabobo.
Mercedes’s last season in MLB was during the 2022 season with San Francisco. He started 2022 with the Chicago White Sox organization in Triple-A Charlotte and was placed on the 10-day injured list on April 4, 2022.
Mercedes played in 25 games with Triple-A Charlotte and batted .230 in 109 plate appearances, smacking 20 hits, five doubles, four home runs, 13 RBI, five stolen bases, 20 walks, and 20 strikeouts before he was designated for assignment on June 12, 2022.
The Giants claimed him off waivers on June 18, 2022, and promoted him to the bigs shortly after, on June 26, 2022.
Mercedes spent time during 2022 in San Francisco and Triple-A Sacramento.
With Sacramento, Mercedes played in 37 games and hit .268 with 158 plate appearances ripping 38 hits, five doubles, eight home runs, 19 RBI, 13 walks, and 34 strikeouts.
During his time with San Francisco, Mercedes batted .233 with 83 plate appearances playing in 31 games, smacking 17 hits, five doubles, one home run, eight RBI, nine walks, and 17 strikeouts before he was released by the organization on October 14, 2022.
Mercedes has not lived up to his expectations to play at the Major League level with certain injuries that he has faced during his career. Prior to the start of the 2022 season in spring training, he was diagnosed with a fracture in the hamate bone of his left hand and had to get surgery in March prior to the start of the year.
Prior to spring training in 2022, Mercedes played in 18 games in the Dominican Republic with Tigres del Licey in the 2021-22 regular season and batted .191 in 68 plate appearances with 12 hits, two doubles, one home run, seven RBI, three walks, and six strikeouts.
During the 2021 season, Mercedes split his time between Triple-A Charlotte and the White Sox during his first year in the bigs.
With the White Sox, he played in 58 games and batted .271 in 262 plate appearances, stroking 65 hits, nine doubles, one triple, seven home runs, 37 RBI, 20 walks, 46 strikeouts, and a .732 OPS before he was optioned to Charlotte on July 2, 2021.
He played in 59 games with Charlotte and batted .275 in 239 plate appearances recording 61 hits, seven doubles, one triple, 11 home runs, 29 RBI, 11 walks, 39 strikeouts, and a .782 OPS.
Mercedes made his MLB debut for the White Sox against the Kansas City Royals on the road on August 2, 2020, as a pinch hitter and grounded out in his only plate appearance of the season and was optioned to the teams’ alternate training site on August 3, 2020.
Mercedes can potentially explore his options to play in other professional leagues around the globe this season or after 2024 if he can stay healthy and perform well in the American Association with the Kansas City Monarchs during the year.
The Kansas City Monarchs will play their first game of the 2024 American Association regular season on the road against the Sioux City Falls Explorers on May 10 at Lewis and Clark Park in Sioux City, Iowa at 8:05 p.m. EST.