How MJ Melendez adjustments look in Baseball Savant's newest metric

Football coaching legend Vince Lombardi dispersed plenty of wisdom in his Hall of Fame career. One sentiment that rings true today is, "Football is a game of inches, and inches make the champion." While it's easy to see how those inches matter in any Kansas City Chiefs matchup, Lombardi's words may apply even more to the Kansas City Royals.

The MLB rulebook has a singular section about the ball, including the baseball will "measure not less than nine nor more than 9¼ inches in circumference." That may sound substantial, but it means MLB batters must track and decide how to hit a ball roughly 2.94 inches wide, flying over 100 mph. Football may come down to inches, but baseball is all about centimeters.

Whether it's infield shifts or the New York Yankees' new bats, MLB clubs are finding ways to maximize those centimeters and win by the smallest margins. Decades removed from the start of the Moneyball revolution and the decades of work from baseball minds like Bill James and Earnshaw Cook, more fans now understand that a batter is more than just his average. It’s fair to wonder what the next mathematical margin in baseball might be.

Baseball Savant's new tool peels back another layer of baseball insight

This quest has led Baseball Savant and other data-first outlets to get creative in quantifying the millions of data points gathered in baseball every day. Savant's latest tool is a Batting Stance Leaderboard, which identifies markers for every MLB player's stance — detailing where batters stand in the box, how far they are from the plate, and how their foot placement evolves throughout a plate appearance.

This isn't a leaderboard that says, "Player X is better than Player Y because their batting stance is more open." Instead, this shows how players differ from each other and still find success. Bobby Witt Jr.'s stance is very different from Vinnie Pasquantino's, but both are valuable in their own right. Now, this leaderboard quantifies how different those stances are and evolves through the swing.

The leaderboard features some of the game's most extreme stances. From Boston Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers' wide-open stance to Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan's narrow foot placement, there are plenty of different looks to some of baseball's best hitters. From a Royals perspective, there are no two setups that look the same. But this leaderboard's release gives Kansas City fans a chance to see just how different outfielder MJ Melendez's swing is from 2024 to 2025.

New metric shows how MJ Melendez is changing KC Royals future

The catcher-turned-outfielder was the target of many Royals fans' ire for the past couple of years after a strong debut season back in 2022. Whether it be some ugly fielding in 2023 or regression at the plate in 2024, there have been plenty of times when he is one of the least popular players on Kansas City's 26-man roster. Entering his age-26 season, Melendez still has plenty of time to salvage his standing among fans and turn things around at the plate. However, for the results to change, the process may need to change, too. Part of that process that changed for Melendez was his swing and mechanics at the plate.

The mechanics were noticeably different, but taking a pitch in an MLB game is very different from taking batting practice. Melendez was trying to adjust mechanics and reset muscle memory from years of baseball; that is easier said than done. Whether or not those mechanics he showed on social media would stick past Opening Day remained to be seen, and so far, it seems like they have.

How is MJ Melendez's stance different and does it matter?

The results through three games haven't been better, but the mechanics are notably different. Here is how Melendez looked last season and how he looks in 2025, according to Baseball Savant.

Where the lefty sets up in the box has barely changed from last season to this, as with many Royals batters. MLB batters setting up further back in the zone makes sense, giving them more time to recognize a pitch and amplify their pull-side power. Kyle Isbel is the only left-handed Royals batter that sets up further back in the box, while New York Yankees' Cody Bellinger (36.2) leads all lefty MLB batters in 2025.

The slight distance off the plate adjustment is interesting because there is a slight correlation with him meeting the ball much further in front of the plate this season. There is a minuscule sample size, so it may balance out, but Melendez is contacting the ball 7.9 inches in front of the plate right now, compared to 1.2 inches in 2025. This data is still fairly new, only going back to 2024, but the correlation is very strong.

Lastly, the distance between feet and stance angle are the most noticeable changes. With Melendez starting with his feet closer together, he reduces the vertical movement required when his motion starts and the horizontal movement. In 2024, he took that right foot and moved more than three feet towards the plate while taking that down to 9-10 inches in 2025. Streamlining that motion was the most noticeable adjustment this offseason and that has carried to Kauffman Stadium.

Melendez's open stance, the beginning of an overly complicated motion at the plate, was one of the league's most excessive in 2024. His open angle was the eighth-highest from any left-handed hitter and led all Royals batters by double digits. Now, he is more in the middle of the pack, both on a league-wide and team basis. Again, changing that angle alone doesn't mean the results will change, but closing up his stance has helped streamline his motion and make his lower half more efficient.

If Melendez keeps these adjustments throughout the season, and if they help power some better batting production, it should be a minor storyline for fans to watch. The Royals obviously have given Melendez a long leash to this point in his career. But, like after the 2023 fielding struggles, Melendez has a high work ethic and is changing in the offseason to try and change his in-season fortunes. Baseball Savant has finally given fans a way to help quantify process and production, and this batting stance leaderboard is the next step in solving the mystery that is baseball.