Here’s how MJ Melendez may have made a roster decision easier for the Kansas City Royals
Intriguing rookie Royals catcher MJ Melendez made his first start in the outfield on Sunday in Minnesota’s Target Field, but the preparations began weeks ago when the organization sent outfield guru Rusty Kuntz to Triple-A to work with him.
Melendez started in right field in a 7-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins in the series finale. At the plate he went 2 for 4 with a double and RBI and scored a run.
In the outfield, he didn’t have a lot of fielding opportunities. In the sixth inning, he couldn’t come up with a catch on a ball Nick Gordon hit off the wall in right-center for a double. Later, Melendez played the carom off the wall in right field very well to limit Jorge Polanco to a single and keep a runner from attempting to score on the play.
“I love it, just being able to be versatile and play different positions,” Melendez said of going to the outfield. “It’s fun, and it’s something that I challenge myself and try to get better at it each and every time I go out there and learn from any mistakes I may have and try to make plays for my pitchers.”
Melendez became the first player to make at least one start apiece at catcher, DH and right field within his first 20 career starts since former-Twins player Chris Herrmann did so in 2012-13.
Melendez, a left-handed hitting 23-year-old who led all of Minor League Baseball in home runs last year, is the organization’s top-rated prospect (Bobby Witt Jr. has graduated off the prospect lists).
A second-round draft pick in 2017, he’s shown the potential to be an impact bat. Playing the same position as the club’s reigning face of the franchise and seven-time All-Star Salvador Perez, means Melendez’s catching opportunities won’t likely come on a daily basis if everyone is healthy.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Melendez has an athletic build. The catcher position typically puts a lot of wear and tear on a player’s legs and robs them of speed over the years, but Melendez has already shown himself to be in the upper tier of Royals players in sprint speed (27.7 feet per second, 6th-best).
That level of versatility from the catcher position, being able to play the outfield, is not commonplace.
“That’s an impressive feat in of itself for him, I mean that’s a show of athleticism you don’t really see in the game very much,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Melendez before Sunday’s game. “That’s another really bright young guy that you could look at and I’m sure you could envision him doing a lot of really good things in the future. I’m sure with Sal too, you look around and go just how are we going to get this guy out there and in the lineup.”
Melendez has now hit safely in 14 of his 20 career starts and eight of his 18 hits in the majors have been for extra bases.
In seven games against the Twins, Melendez has had a double, a triple, and a home run.
“He’s shown us a little bit about who he is and what he can do on the field,” Baldelli said. “Another strong-bodied guy that can really impact that ball. When you find guys that can do that and also go behind the plate — he seems like he has a pretty good arm, can throw the ball a little bit — any young catcher, they’re going to learn a lot over time. ...
“When you have an offensive catcher from the left side, that’s a good place to start. When you saw him get a hold of a ball, you could really see what he could do. He seems to compete real well at the plate, see the ball pretty good. I don’t love seeing all the good, young players coming up on the other side of the field, but I’m sure the Royals are pretty pumped about that kid too.”
Will Royals go with three catchers?
Royals manager Mike Matheny has said that Melendez will likely continue to catch on days when Perez isn’t behind the plate, but Melendez will also get playing time in right field as well as at designated hitter.
The dilemma of keeping Melendez in the lineup while also maximizing their current All-Star backstop Perez, a five-time Gold Glove winner and four-time Silver Slugger recipient, has been something the Royals knew was on the horizon for some time.
“It’s definitely going to get more challenging with Salvy back and catching,” said Royals general manager J.J. Picollo, “but we’re looking for opportunities to take advantage of what we’d been doing last year, playing him at third base, and the beginning of this year, playing him in the outfield, just because we knew there was going to be a point in time — we didn’t know when it was going to be — that we were going to need him to play another position.”
“With the way he has swung the bat since he has been up, the time is coming for us to do that. But he’s a good athlete. He’s a baseball player. We don’t expect perfection because he hasn’t spent enough time at those other positions.”
Melendez’s initial promotion to the majors came in the aftermath of backup catcher Cam Gallagher going on the IL with a hamstring strain. Gallagher could be ready to start a minor-league rehab assignment in the next week.
So what happens when Gallagher is ready to return?
“We’ll see how it goes, because we have options,” Picollo said. “We have ways to handle that. The 13 pitchers and 13 position players, that’s coming in a couple weeks. That’s one more than we’ve had anyway. We’ve been operating with 12 position players. So that additional spot plays into this a little bit.”
Picollo referenced MLB’s roster rules that restrict teams to a maximum of 13 pitchers on major-league rosters starting June 20. MLB announced recently that the current 14-player maximum will extend through games of June 19.
The Royals currently have 14 pitchers on their active roster and 12 position players. So they’ll be forced to make some roster decisions by June 20, regardless.
“The fact that MJ is going to play other positions plays into it,” Picollo said. “Also with Salvy DH-ing and potentially MJ DH-ing, you have two guys and having a third catcher isn’t necessarily a bad thing because you’re not going to lose your DH in those games. When we get to that point, we’ll make a call which way we’re going to go. Anticipating that we’ll have to have 13 position players is going to play in the favor of three catchers.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Here’s how MJ Melendez may have made a roster decision easier for the Kansas City Royals."
