CHICAGO -- The Royals decided to send down MJ Melendez on April 19, giving the outfielder a chance to reset following a rough start to the year. The biggest thing for Melendez was getting his swing back.
He hit just .085 in his first 16 games before his demotion, and his swing needed some tweaks mechanically. After many sleepless nights working on his swing, Melendez is getting another shot in the Majors.
The Royals called up the 26-year-old ahead of Wednesday afternoon's series finale against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He took the roster spot of Nick Loftin, who landed on the 7-day IL with a concussion after getting kicked in the head on a slide by Pete Crow-Armstrong in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s 6-0 loss.
“The first few weeks, the first month, weren't great,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “The last six weeks or so have been markedly better, especially in the last three to four weeks. They moved him into the leadoff spot; his at-bat quality went up. He took some walks, he swung at better pitches and he drove the ball to all fields.
"We obviously know the impact he can have. He's got tons of power and bat speed. The quality of the at-bats has gotten better, his defense has been solid throughout and he's worked extremely hard.”
Melendez hit .333 with four home runs, nine RBIs and nine walks across 15 July games with Triple-A Omaha, and he has launched six homers since June 21. The Royals have certainly been pleased with his growth at the plate in recent weeks.
Those offensive numbers are a massive improvement from where Melendez was in his first few weeks down at Triple-A. He hit just .156 with one home run and six RBIs in his first 19 contests.
“I worked a lot on my swing,” Melendez said. “That was most of the reason why I got sent down. I was able to experiment a little bit. I had some struggles early on, just kind of trying different things out, and once I was able to find what works for me, I was able to kind of stick with that and just really adjust my process and get reps.”
Although Melendez believes he is in a great spot with his swing now, finding it again came with many challenges. He would often find himself awake until the early morning, working on different things in his hotel room.
He would look in the mirror, look at his stance and go through the motion slowly. Melendez was determined to get back to the player he knows he can be at the plate.
“I lived out of a hotel for three months,” Melendez said. “I was just up late at night. I really was up until early in the morning, just thinking about baseball, thinking about my swing, trying to figure out -- watching videos of myself, of other players -- and I had some sleepless nights.
"But I still had to show up to the park every day and give my 100% effort and try to get back here. A lot of struggles early on, just thinking, just trying to do too much, trying to figure it out early, but once I just kind of let it be and just kind of let it happen naturally, is when I felt like I found myself again.”
Melendez wasn’t in the lineup for Wednesday’s series finale against the Cubs, but he’ll find his way into Kansas City’s lineup moving forward.
“He'll play,” Quatraro said. “We're not going to commit to any one lineup every day, but he's going to play.”