Latest Royals injury provides pathway for redemption for red-hot former outcast

After a long spell in Triple-A Omaha, the time appears to be now for MJ Melendez to prove his major league worth for Kansas City Royals once again.

After the team announced, ahead of Wednesday's series finale against the Cubs, that utility man Nick Loftin would be hitting the 7-day concussion injured, Melendez was the one who had his name called upon to take over the vacant big league bench role.

Latest Royals injury provides MJ Melendez with a pathway for redemption

The Royals demoted Melendez back on April 19 after an utterly putrid start to the 2025 campaign. In 52 plate appearances across six games, the 26-year-old outfielder slashed .085/.173/.170 with one homer, one RBI, a 38.5% strikeout rate, a -6 wRC+ and a -0.4 fWAR. To put things in simpler form, anything that could go wrong for Melendez did go wrong.

At the time of his demotion, Royals GM J.J. Picollo attempted to put a positive spin on it, saying it could be "the start of a new beginning" for Melendez.

The hope seemed to be that he would work through some changes, get right and make his way back to the big leagues before too long. This plan obviosuly didn't come to fruition.

Melendez struggled right from the get go slashing .129/.200/.194 in his first eight games to round out April. Come May, improvements started to set in, hitting .243 with a .761 OPS, but he was still a below average 88 wRC+ bat for the month. Then in June, he took a bit of a step back. While he was hitting marginally better for the month at .247, his OPS dropped below .700 (.699) and his monthly wRC+ fell to 75.

At this point a return seemed like a long shot. That is until July rolled around.

So far this month, Melendez is slashing .322/.406/.644 with a 166 wRC+ with the Storm Chasers, dominating to the degree the Royals were hoping for three months prior. This was obviously enough for the them to give him another whirl at the majors.

There's no questioning Melendez has the tools to a productive big league bat, with the power to hit for double-digit homers and before last season, the ability to draw walks at a high rate - 12.4% in 2022 and 10.3% in 2023. It's just been consistency and execution that have been the problem.

Now he has the chance in a lower-pressure reserve role, different from the primarily starting role he entered the year with, to gain his footing in The Show again.

To likely many people's surprise though, he'll have some decent sized shoes to fill with Nick Loftin hitting the shelf. The utility man has somewhat defied expectations and become a solid contributor this month in a reserve role, hitting .260, slugging .420 with a pair of homers and eight RBI in 14 games this month.

It remains to be seen how long Melendez's time in the majors will last, but over the next week while Loftin is out, the stage is his to prove he belongs with Royals.