Matt Mervis provides struggling Cubs hope in major league debut

CHICAGO — Matt Mervis‘ climb to the big leagues was both meandering and steep. When debut day finally arrived on a lustrous Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, the pinnacle moment almost didn’t happen.

“I was hoping for the fourth at-bat,” Mervis said after his eighth-inning single drove in an insurance run in the Cubs’ 4-1 win over the Marlins at the Friendly Confines.

Mervis joined the club from Triple-A Iowa on Friday upon the Cubs’ returning from a tough road trip through Miami and Washington on which they lost six of seven, with five of the losses coming by a single run.

“It sucks hard,” was how Cubs manager David Ross described the spate of narrow defeats. Still, the mood was lightened by the arrival of Mervis, who was hitting .286/.402/.560 at Triple-A Iowa with six homers and 27 RBIs in 24 games.

That’s what happens with any touted new arrival: a resurgence of hope. Perhaps echoing that notion was the weather itself, warm and flawless on a sunny afternoon on the north side of Chicago.

“They just said, ‘Pack stuff and get to the stadium, and congratulations,'” Mervis said, describing the call he received from the Cubs telling him he was hitting the big-time. He added, “This is all I’ve wanted to do for pretty much my whole life.”

While Mervis’ Triple-A numbers suggested an eventual promotion was inevitable, it wasn’t long ago that it seemed inconceivable. After a four-year career at Duke in which Mervis was as coveted for his pitching arm as his bat, he went undrafted in the 2020 draft, which was truncated to five rounds because of the pandemic.

Mervis signed with the Cubs as a free agent. While he heard many times that he should focus on pitching, he always thought his future would be forged with his still-developing ability with the bat. His insistence on that belief was a big step that led to Friday’s game.

Still, things moved slowly. Mervis hit just .209 during his first season of professional games in 2021 but then leaped to .309 across three levels in 2022 while mashing 36 homers. In fact, that became his nickname: Mash.

“My parents like it,” Mervis said. “We all have T-shirts and my friends jokingly call me that sometimes. It is strange to be a minor leaguer with a nickname, but I don’t mind.”

With the Cubs floundering a bit on offense during the rough road trip, and the Mervis mash in effect at Iowa, the time for his long-awaited call arrived. His parents, who had been en route to watch him play in the minors, had to reroute to Chicago, all while dealing with the emotions of their son realizing his dream.

After meeting with the media and studying the labyrinthine passageways beneath 109-year-old Wrigley Field before the game, Mervis took the field with his teammates, and before he knew it, he was striding to the plate for his first MLB at-bat against Marlins righty Edward Cabrera in the second inning.

The crowd, all too familiar with Mervis’ prospect profile, gave him a rousing, prolonged welcome as he stepped to the plate.

“That was really cool,” Mervis said. “Obviously the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of, and for people to cheer for me like that was something I’ve never experienced before.”

Also: Mervis had never faced a big league pitcher in a big league game before, and Cabrera greeted him with a nasty changeup at the knees — at 92.4 mph. He ended up striking out in that first at-bat. He grounded out in the fourth and struck out again in the sixth.

Hey, the big leagues are tough. Meanwhile, the well-pitched game zipped along, and with the Cubs leading 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Mervis was due to be the fifth batter up in the inning.

The first two hitters went down quickly, but Cody Bellinger blooped a double after Marlins right fielder Garrett Hampson fell down. With tough lefty Tanner Scott on the mound, Miami walked righty Trey Mancini intentionally to bring the lefty-swinging Mervis to the plate for another shot at his first hit.

Mervis didn’t waste that fourth at-bat. Instead he very much lived up to his name — he mashed. Mervis’ line shot to right rocketed off the bat at 111 mph and plated Bellinger to give the Cubs an insurance run in the tense contest.

“That was fun,” Mervis said. “I was trying not to overthink it.”

The response was typical on a day that Mervis seemed to handle with the ease of a veteran, even with so much going on and his parents watching from the stands.

“I liked the way he handled the moments,” Ross said. “Didn’t get outside of himself and took some good swings on some nasty pitches.”

With his first game, first hit and first RBI all under his belt, and the ball with which he collected his first big league knock secured, the only question remaining for Mervis was what he would do with the memento.

“It’s going to my dad,” Mervis said. “He was wearing my Fall League jersey today. He gets the bats and gloves and all that stuff. I know he presents that stuff proudly in his office.”