Mets Designate MJ Melendez For Assignment

The Mets announced that outfielder MJ Melendez has been designated for assignment, per Jorge Castillo of ESPN. Earlier today, the Mets selected Robert Stock and Bryce Conley to the 40-man roster. They opened one spot by designating Kevin Herget for assignment. Sending Melendez into DFA limbo opens another.

Melendez, 27, was once a promising catching prospect with the Royals. He didn’t pan out in the majors defensively, which got him moved to a corner outfield role. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to hit enough to hold a spot out there. He was non-tendered at the end of last year, which allowed the Mets to scoop him up on a one-year deal worth $1.5MM.

He has spent most of this year on optional assignment. He was called up in April and had a brief run of success, with a .333/.409/.615 line in his first 45 plate appearances this year. But he regressed after that, with a .123/.273/.222 line in his next 99 trips to the plate. That dropped him to .192/.315/.350 for the year and .213/.298/.385 in his career. He was optioned back to Triple-A in June.

For what it’s worth, he has been hitting well since that optional assignment but he now has 1,796 plate appearances in the majors without success. The Mets also weren’t likely to need his services down the stretch. They might trade Luis Robert Jr. and Tyrone Taylor but Juan Soto, A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge aren’t going anywhere, leaving the Mets set in the outfield. Soto is currently on the IL, so perhaps Brett Baty and/or Jared Young could pick up some outfield time until he gets back. Nick Morabito is still on the 40-man roster and could be recalled. Other outfielders will surely end up on waivers or on the open market in the coming days as the trade deadline leads to lots of roster churn.

The Mets have bumped him into DFA limbo. They have until tomorrow’s trade deadline to try to trade him but he will most likely end up on waivers. If he clears, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, he doesn’t have enough service to both reject an assignment and keep his remaining salary commitments. He is still owed almost half a million, so he would presumably stay with Syracuse rather than heading to the open market.