Merrifield bounced around the NL East last season with the Phillies and Braves while his batting average took a nosedive. After hitting .272 in his last full year with the Blue Jays in 2023, the 36-year-old batted .199 in 95 games with Philadelphia, then improved to .248 over 42 games in Atlanta.

A computerized system that calls balls and strikes is being tested during Major League Baseball spring training exhibition games starting Thursday after four years of experiments in the minor leagues.

Umpires first began calling both balls and strikes way back in 1864, and baseballers have been arguing about those calls ever since. Strike-zone judgment has been the subject of some untold number of verbal (and,