It's about time for MJ Melendez to take his final KC Royals test

There is, figuratively speaking, a baseball movie playing in Omaha, where the Kansas City Royals have their Triple-A farm club. Its story gets more interesting by the day — returned to the minors after failing for four seasons to prove he could consistently manage big league pitching, a once-promising slugger is a threat again at the plate. Suddenly hot, he shows more and more signs that he could — with the emphasis on could — be rediscovering the form with which he slugged 41 home runs in 2021.

The star is MJ Melendez, and his bat is hot ... so hot, in fact, that some might say the Royals should give him a shot at providing some punch to their favorite team's chronically troublesome offense. Some argument could be made for that: Melendez, who hasn't seen a major league pitch since April 16 when he lined out with the potential tying run at second to end KC's 4-3 loss to the Yankees and drop his average to .085, is hitting .342 with six doubles, three homers, and four RBI in his last eight games at Omaha. He was back in the minors three days later.

And for July (through Tuesday), he's slashing .322/.406/.644 with a 1.050 OPS, numbers far better than the .229/.266/.419 line he carried into the month. The improvement is noteworthy if not dramatic.

But the Royals and their fans have seen this Melendez movie before. He's streaky, capable of long slumps followed by sizzling stretches like last August, when he entered the month batting .191 but in 25 games slashed .311/.363/.581, homered five times, and drove in 12 runs. Or like 2023, when he ended July with a .217 average but hit .272 with a .364 OBP, belted eight home runs, and had 21 RBI in his final 49 games of the season.

And who can forget the minor-league best 41 homers he smashed in his spectacular 2021 campaign?

The question all of this raises is simple: is MJ Melendez breaking back out, or will he break back down? The Royals need to find out.

It's about time for the KC Royals to give MJ Melendez his final test

Considering he's never hit major league pitchers like he punished minor league hurlers — his four-season .216/.299/.390 big league line casts an ugly shadow over his 52 homers — the Royals can't be blamed if they're skeptical of Melendez's recent surge.

Whether he'll sustain his current hot streak remains to be seen. History isn't on his side, but the Kansas City brain trust shouldn't wait much longer to put him to the major league test which, all things considered, should determine, once and for all, Melendez's Kansas City future.

The Royals could strike now, while the proverbial iron is hot. Perhaps Melendez can help their offense, which remains inconsistent despite showing recent signs of a more robust existence, but that would mean taking time from John Rave, who's been spending more and more time in left field and whose Monday night homer against the Cubs was his third in four games. And the club could well add a bigger outfield bat before the July 31 trade deadline.

The better move may be to wait until September 1, when the club will expand its major league roster by two players. Melendez could get regular reps if the Royals are by then out of contention, and some work if they're still in the race.

In any event, the Royals have seen everything Melendez can and can't do. The time has come to decide whether the former is enough to justify keeping him in the organization.