How Royals catching prospect MJ Melendez has helped develop the pitching prospects

MJ Melendez has had a lot on his plate since he became part of the Royals organization.

In addition to being the Royals catcher of the future, the No. 4 prospect in the organization has had to catch the future of the organization’s pitching staff in Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Kris Bubic and Daniel Lynch.

At the plate, Melendez has struggled. He is batting .160 this season with just five home runs and 36 RBI. In Class A Lexington last season, Melendez hit .251 with 19 home runs, but has struggled to hit for power in High-A Wilmington, which has a ballpark that isn’t hitter-friendly.

“I definitely could be doing better. I wish I was doing better, but no matter how much you work in the offseason I know the work I put in, it hasn’t turned out the way I wanted it to,” Melendez told The Star. “All I can do is just try and keep working and keep a positive outlook.”

Melendez has leaned on his father, Mervyl, the head coach at Florida International, for advice during his offensive struggles. Before being selected in the second round of the 2017 draft, Melendez was supposed to play for his father and said his dad has the perfect balance between acting as his father and as his coach, and the elder Melendez has told his son to not let his hitting struggles affect his ability to call games and play defense. Melendez has been able to follow through on that advice.

Kowar and Singer have already been promoted to Class AA Northwest Arkansas, while Bubic is off to a strong start since his promotion from Lexington.

“MJ’s done an incredible job defensively considering he’s got offensive ability and it isn’t going well right now,” said J.J. Picollo, Royals assistant general manager. “He’s been able to separate the offense from the defense, and when you can do that as a catcher that’s your big bonus. He’s doing it.”

Melendez said no two days have been the same this season when catching Wilmington’s pitching staff, given the different styles and arsenals of each one.

As does the Royals front office, Melendez always thought Bubic’s curveball was better than what Bubic gave it credit.

“You wouldn’t know that that was a pitch he was trying to work on,” Melendez said.

Melendez said catching pitchers like Bubic, who are experimenting with new pitches, requires him to be extra supportive, because he needs to encourage them to keep throwing something, even if the result isn’t there yet.

Melendez said he’s worked with a lot of pitching staffs over the years and has never seen one like this season, where any starter can go six or seven innings without giving up many hits or runs. He’s already thought about what it’s going to look like when they’re all in the major leagues together.

“It’s a pretty unique thing that we have going on here,” he said.

This story was originally published June 28, 2019 at 8:25 PM with the headline "How Royals catching prospect MJ Melendez has helped develop the pitching prospects."