When Matt Quatraro was hired there was a lot of speculation about what things he would bring over from the “Rays Way”. One of the things I heard multiple times from multiple sources is that they use their whole roster. There are several ways you can do that, but one of the most obvious is platooning, and the Rays do that quite a bit. MJ Melendez is basically a platoon bat at this point, which seems to be working of late.
On August 2 the Royals faced Tarik Skubal, a lefty who is vying for a Cy Young award. Melendez was not in the lineup. On August 5 James Paxton was on the mound and again MJ was absent. He is not starting against southpaws any more. He has only had 14 plate appearances against lefties in July and August. He hit rarely against them earlier in the year too, so his total on the year is now 53. That is good because he has hit .115/.132/.115 in those plate appearances. He is basically a normal pitcher or maybe even a little worse against same handed opponents.
Against opposite handed he is slightly above league average with a 105 wRC+. Last year the split wasn’t quite so drastic, but it was still large, large enough that you probably should avoid him going against left handers as much as possible. In July, Melendez posted his first above-average month, a 113 wRC+, while having a .211 BABIP so it was not luck that drove his production. In August the luck has shown up and his numbers are sparkling. His August OPS is 1.128 because his BABIP has jumped to .467. He was due for some luck.
The main problem with this is that the Royals don’t really have the other side of the platoon. In the two games I mentioned before, Dairon Blanco and Garrett Hampson got the starts in left field. Neither of them is a lefty killer. Both are below average against right or left. I really wish Nelson Velazquez could find a bit of whatever he was doing last year, that seems like the best platoon partner for Melendez. A right-handed bat with power who you can sub out with a defensive replacement later in the game, even Melendez if they bring in a right-handed reliever.
It will be interesting if the Royals go acquire a right-handed bat in the offseason. Maybe a Mark Canha or Tyler O’Neill who is a lefty masher. Regardless of how the roster shifts down the line, it is nice that they are finally getting some production out of their outfield.