{"id":569444,"date":"2026-02-13T04:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569444\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T04:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:17:20","slug":"new-york-mets-sign-outfielder-mj-melendez-to-a-1-year-contract-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569444\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Mets sign outfielder MJ Melendez to a 1-year contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 MJ Melendez<\/a> and the New York Mets<\/a> agreed Thursday to a one-year contract, adding depth to an outfield thinned by offseason trades.<\/p>\n

He gets a $1.5 million salary while in the major leagues and $425,000 while in the minors.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Melendez, once a touted prospect with Kansas City, spent most of last season in the minors. He batted .083 (5 for 60) with one home run and two doubles for the Royals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Melendez is a .215 career hitter with 52 homers, 163 RBIs and a .685 OPS in 435 major league games over four seasons with the Royals. He would have been eligible for arbitration this winter but Kansas City declined to offer him a contract in November, making him a free agent. <\/p>\n

A left-handed hitter, Melendez came up as a catcher and corner outfielder in 2022 before moving exclusively to the outfield in 2024 \u2014 plus his second of two career appearances at first base. <\/p>\n

He can play both corner spots, which makes him a potential fit for the Mets after they traded Brandon Nimmo to Texas and Jeff McNeil<\/a> to the Athletics<\/a> this offseason. Former right fielder Starling Marte<\/a> became a free agent at age 37.<\/p>\n

Star slugger Juan Soto<\/a> is moving from right field to left, and Tyrone Taylor<\/a> is an excellent defender who projects as a fourth outfielder. Top prospect Carson Benge<\/a>, drafted in the first round from Oklahoma State in 2024, will get an opportunity to make the team in right \u2014 but he has only 24 games of Triple-A experience.<\/p>\n

Luis Robert<\/a> Jr. was acquired in a trade with the Chicago White Sox<\/a> to play center.<\/p>\n

Melendez batted .261 with 20 homers, 64 RBIs, 20 steals and an .813 OPS in 107 games at Triple-A Omaha last year.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB<\/a>: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/MLB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 MJ Melendez and the New York Mets agreed Thursday to a one-year contract, adding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,134,999,19,101,8532,4,1690,61,2548,4203,1420,1444],"class_list":{"0":"post-569444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-juan-soto","10":"tag-luis-robert-jr","11":"tag-major-league-baseball","12":"tag-mets","13":"tag-mj-melendez","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-mets","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkmets","19":"tag-starling-marte","20":"tag-tyrone-taylor"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116061394983512630","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}