Kansas City Royals GM J.J. Picollo: We’re not giving up on MJ Melendez playing catcher

MJ Melendez showed that he could be an everyday contributor for the Kansas City Royals while learning to play the outfield on the fly. He did enough to make himself the likely everyday left fielder for next season.

But the Royals aren’t ready to abandon the idea of Melendez playing catcher, even with the reigning face of the franchise and team leader Salvador Perez entrenched as the starting catcher.

So Melendez seems destined to slot into a dual-purpose role again next season.

In order to keep his bat in the lineup along with Perez, the Royals played Melendez in left field and right field and also found at-bats for him as the designated hitter as one of their promising young rookies in 2022.

But he’d been drafted as a catcher and viewed as a top catching prospect at times during his career in the minors.

“We never doubted his catching ability in the minor leagues at all,” Royals executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo said. “He has really good hands. He throws well.”

Baseball America dubbed Melendez the best defensive catcher in the Royals farm system in 2020 and 2021. He threw out 42 percent of attempted base stealers in the South Atlantic League in 2019, tied for the league’s best rate.

In 2021, Melendez put himself back near the forefront of the prospect radar by leading all of Minor League Baseball with 41 home runs and slashing .288/.386/.625 while splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A.

“He’s too young to give up on a premium position,” Picollo said. “It’s just a unique situation where you’ve got a guy that’s as decorated as Salvy that’s ahead of him. But we want MJ to catch.”

Last season, Melendez played 311 2/3 innings in the outfield in the majors on top of 578 1/3 innings behind the plate. Including innings caught in the minors prior to his promotion to the big leagues, he actually caught more innings (706 2/3 total innings) than he had in any single season in the minors.

Offensively, Melendez finished the season with a slash line of .217/.313/.393 with 18 home runs and 62 RBIs. He ranked among the rookie leaders in walks (66, first), home runs (sixth), RBIs (sixth), extra-base hits (42, sixth), total bases (181, seventh) and doubles (21, tied for ninth) in 129 games.

It’s not entirely clear how his playing time will be distributed this season, but Melendez will likely spend time in left field and as the catcher when Perez is at designated hitter.

If Perez needs an extended period out from behind the plate due to injury, Melendez could step in as he did this past season.

But the Royals have had — and will continue to have — internal discussions about whether they’d be better off if they kept him in left field and didn’t have him catch.

“I don’t think we’re at a spot (where) you’ll get this many games here, this many games here,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I think there’s still too many moving parts here, things we have to talk about before we do it.”

The challenge aspect of the scenario is having Melendez devote so much of his pregame work to catching, working with the pitchers and going over scouting reports and game plans while also getting prepared for the outfield.

He has shown great aptitude for the strategic side of catching, but his defensive metrics — particularly pitch framing — were near the bottom of the majors this past season.

Picollo attributed that at least in part due to Melendez falling into the trap of feeling like his hitting was his ticket to remain in the majors.

The message to him this winter has been to focus on his catching, because the Royals believe he still has a future at that position.