Signing MJ Melendez was a very interesting idea that simply was relied upon a little too much for the Mets; which was very much a microcosm of the offseason David Stearns had prior to the 2026 season.
Melendez was exactly the type of signing a team makes to try and win on the margins. Melendez, who was 27 going into the season, was a former Top 100 prospect by all three major publications (Baseball Prospectus, Baseball American and MLB Pipeline). He had two around league average offensive seasons in 2022 and 2023 as a rookie and season year player with the Royals respectively. After a worse 2024 and a disastrous 2025 for Melendez, he was released from the Royals and made his way to Queens.
Melendez, on the whole, was not that bad for the Mets. His .191 batting average pops out of the page for all the wrong reasons, but he got on base more than you think (.315 OBP). He slugged .350 0n the season, and all in all had a 91 WRC+ on the year. While obviously not a starting caliber player, he did enough as a bench guy to keep his career afloat.
The weirdest part of the season for Melendez was, at one point, he was a shining beacon while the Mets could not hit water from a boat. Due to a myriad of injuries, the Mets played Melendez a lot in April, and to his credit he delivered. He had a 191 wRC+ that month, though he had literally no help, as the team notched a league-low 77 wRC+ that month with Melendez's 191 wRC+.
He fell off a cliff after that month, earning a 54 wRC+ in May, a 71 wRC+ in June, and spending the rest of the year in Syracuse. Melendez elected free agency in October, but he likely did enough to, at the very least, sign a minor league deal somewhere.
Melendez is a very apropos story of the 2026 New York Mets. His hot streak was poorly timed, just like the team deciding to look like a pretty decent professional baseball club well after the season was over.
