Royals Urged To Move On From 26-Year-Old Former Top Prospect After Awful Start

If the Kansas City Royals were hoping for a late breakout from one of their outfielders, the start to the season certainly hasn't gone as planned.

MJ Melendez was once considered the organization's second-best prospect behind Bobby Witt Jr., but the first three-plus years haven't gone according to plan. The 2024 campaign was his worst yet at the plate, and so far in 2025, nothing has improved in the slightest.

Melendez has appeared in all but one of the Royals' games so far, but he's still had his role diminished compared to the beginning of last season. He's a pure platoon player at this point, and if he can't prove soon that he can hold his own offensively, he could face even more dire consequences.

Before Monday's game, Craig Brown of Into the Fountains urged the Royals to stop putting Melendez in the starting lineup, opting for a Triple-A replacement for the time being while presumably considering dumping him from the roster.

"The Royals will need to make a move soon on MJ Melendez. I was hopeful that the reworked batting stance would yield results, but that’s just not happening. He has reached base four times in 24 plate appearances while striking out eight times," Brown wrote.

"Melendez didn’t need to get off to a hot start. He just needed to be decent. That’s not happening. The Royals have some outfield depth in Omaha that they have to be considering. This isn’t a “wait until Memorial Day” kind of situation. This is an “act now to plug a fairly obvious hole” move."

Melendez went 1-for-3 with a double, walk, and two strikeouts Monday, raising his on-base percentage to all of .286. Amazingly, that figure is higher than it was last season despite Melendez's .130 batting average through nine games.

The Royals have a few options with Melendez, none of which are appealing, should they choose to remove him from the regular rotation of position players. They can bench him, they can send him back to Triple-A, or they can try to find a trade partner, who would be buying at a very low value.

Perhaps Melendez is the player who will cede way to top prospect Jac Caglianone at some point this season, assuming the latter can hold his own in the outfield. For now, though, the Royals have to pray Monday's game was the start of a hot streak.

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