{"id":2273211,"date":"2026-02-09T00:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2273211"},"modified":"2026-02-09T00:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:54:17","slug":"former-royals-of-mj-melendez-reportedly-signs-with-ny-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/former-royals-of-mj-melendez-reportedly-signs-with-ny-mets\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Royals OF MJ Melendez reportedly signs with NY Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Kansas City Royals outfielder MJ Melendez has found a new home.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday, Melendez reportedly agreed to a one-year deal<\/a> worth $1.5 million to join the New York Mets, per MLB insider Jon Heyman. He arrives in New York after four seasons with the Royals.<\/p>\n

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Melendez was once a Royals top prospect. He was selected in the second round of the 2017 MLB Draft as a catcher. He would later transition to the outfield<\/a> as the Royals were set with Salvador Perez behind the plate.<\/p>\n

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Melendez hit 41 homers across two minor-league affiliates in 2021. His offensive prowess led to his MLB debut a year later. However, Melendez never quite put it together at the big-league level.<\/p>\n

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He struggled to hit for average despite hitting 52 career homers. In 2025, Melendez posted an .083 batting average in 60 at-bats. The Royals ultimately decided to demote Melendez to Triple-A Omaha<\/a> for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

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Melendez did fare better in the minors. He ironed out his swing and finished the 2025 campaign with an .813 OPS (on-base plus slugging), 20 homers, 64 RBIs and 20 stolen bases with the Omaha Storm Chasers.<\/p>\n

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However, the Royals did not renew his contract<\/a> for 2026. As a result, Melendez tested free agency and landed with the Mets.<\/p>\n

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Now, Melendez is set for a fresh start. He gets a chance to make the Mets roster on opening day. New York boasts an outfield that includes Juan Soto and Luis Robert Jr.<\/p>\n

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The Royals have moved on with Isaac Collins and Lane Thomas in their outfield. Collins arrived in a trade from the Milwaukee Brewers. He is expected to be the primary left fielder while Thomas \u2014 who was acquired in free agency \u2014 will get a chance for regular at-bats in the outfield rotation.<\/p>\n

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Melendez will face his former team from July 7-9. The Royals travel to Citi Field to face the Mets just before the MLB All-Star Break.<\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
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Jaylon Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jaylon Thompson covers the Royals for The Kansas City Star. He previously covered the 2021 World Series and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jaylon is a proud alumnus of the University of Georgia.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Kansas City Royals outfielder MJ Melendez has found a new home. On Sunday, Melendez reportedly agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.5 million to join the New York Mets, per MLB insider Jon Heyman. He arrives in New York after four seasons with the Royals. Melendez was once a Royals top prospect. He was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2056456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[429652,43627,380043,25866,311257],"class_list":["post-2273211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-free-agent","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mj-melendez","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cole-Ragans-shines-as-KC-Royals-finish-2025-on-high.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2273212,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273211\/revisions\/2273212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2056456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}