Ex-Serra hurler named PTBNL in Donaldson deal

It was on the final day of the Major League Baseball trade deadline when the Cleveland Indians acquired three-time All-Star third baseman Josh Donaldson from the Toronto Blue Jays for a player to be named later.

Last Friday, after over a month of hearing his name on the rumor mill, Merryweather — a San Mateo native who played at Serra and Skyline College — was sent to Toronto as the PTBNL in the Donaldson deal.

“There’s a lot of rumors obviously at first,” Merryweather said. “People were trying to figure out who this player to be named was. … [Indians general manager Mike Chernoff] just told me, ‘hey, nothing’s really official; so that’s all I can really tell you.’”

“Now it’s official and I’m going to be a Blue Jay,” Merryweather said.

After advancing to Triple-A in 2017 in his fourth year of professional baseball, Merryweather was added to Cleveland’s 40-man roster. Coming off a career-high 128 strikeouts in 128 2/3 inning between Double-A and Triple-A, he was ranked the No. 17 prospect in the Indians organization by “Baseball America.”

Then, one week into spring training, Merryweather suffered the first major arm injury of his career, sustaining a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament of his pitching elbow, the injury commonly associated with Tommy John surgery. Within days, he was diagnosed and underwent the season-ending procedure.

“It was enough where I wanted to do surgery and not try to pitch through it,” Merryweather said. “It set me up for being able to come back next year with some time left. So that was a big part of having the surgery.”

Merryweather said he had never experienced arm problems until last season, when he suffered a forearm strain late in the year. It didn’t interrupt his offseason work though. He said the ACL injury was not related to the forearm strain, and that he was caught completely off-guard by the elbow pain he experienced while throwing a spring training bullpen.

“Definitely surprising at first,” Merryweather said. “Getting that MRI back and basically the next day I had a tear in my ACL, it was a little surprising. … I haven’t really thought about it much. I’m just looking at my rehab and what I can do to recover.”

Merryweather has an impressive record of overcoming bad situations. As a senior in 2010, he earned second-team All-West Catholic Athletic League, though he was not considered a strikeout pitcher. He totaled just 43 punch-outs in 63 innings that season.

Through two seasons at Skyline College, he saw a downturn, including an abysmal sophomore season in 2012 in which he posted a winless 0-7 record.

“I wasn’t the best version of myself in those years,” Merryweather said. “I was still trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t. When I went to OBU … it was really my last year there when things started to click.”

Merryweather transferred to Oklahoma Baptist University where he hit his stride, going 10-2 with a 2.55 ERA as a junior in 2013. Still, the strikeout numbers were moderate at best. He fanned 76 through 81 innings for the NAIA program. His senior season is when the big right-hander took off, posting a 12-3 record with a 1.07 ERA while striking out 132 through 100 2/3 innings.

In the 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft, the Indians selected him in the fifth round, making him the highest drafted Skyline alumnus ever to be selected in the June draft.

Current Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins was in his final season in Cleveland’s front office in 2014. He was the director of player development in June 2014. After being promoted to vice president of player personnel in 2015, he joined the Blue Jays prior to the 2016 season as Toronto’s GM.

Merryweather said he believes his previous affiliation with Atkins played a hand in his being acquired by the Blue Jays.

“There’s a lot of front office connections between Cleveland and Toronto,” Merryweather said. “It might explain some of the moves they’ve made over the years.”

Merryweather has resumed baseball activities. He started throwing from flat ground from distances up to 45 feet in September.

“I don’t think mound work will start for another month, at least,” Merryweather said.