Rule 5 Draft Prospect Profile: Cristofer Melendez
At just 23-years old, Cristofer Melendez has already made his way around the MLB. He has been a part of four MLB organizations including the Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, and San Diego Padres. He came over to the Pirates in a trade for cash with the Padres prior to the 2019 season after being selected in the Minor League portion of the 2018 Rule 5 Draft. He has had a lot of struggles throughout his Minor League career and has failed to make it passed Low-A Ball. Before joining the Pirates system, he spent three years in rookie ball before he ended up getting too old for the league and the Pirates decided to promote him to Low-A Ball.
He has good velocity, with a fastball in the upper 90s, but his out pitch is his curveball which he drops down and in to left-handed batters. While his velocity is good, it doesn't last very long as Melendez projects to be either a middle or late-inning reliever down the road. His control has been an issue that has plagued him throughout his professional career and has caused him to get into jams. He has only had one season where he had an ERA under two and that was during the 2018 season in the White Sox organization. He is eligible for the Rule 5 Draft for the third year in a row, but the focus for the Pirates shouldn't be protection, but development of Melendez into a good pitching prospect.
Young Pitcher on the Move
When Melendez signed with the Houston Astros at 18-years-old, it was his high-powered fastball that caught scout's eyes. He could hit in the upper 90's even touching triple-digits at times and featured a plus breaking ball. It was the Houston Astros that scooped him up and sent him to the DSL Astros Blue to start his professional baseball career. Once he got into the Astros' system he found success out of the bullpen going 2-3 with an impressive 2.78 ERA over 22.1 innings of work. He struck out 17% of the batters he faced, but he also walked nearly 13% of hitters. He did keep the ball in the ballpark, allowing just one home run, but was smacked around by the opposition for a .244 opponent batting average.
As 2016 rolled around, Melendez continued to pitch in the Dominican Summer League, instead this time for the Astros Orange. He still posted a decent ERA, going 4-2 with a 3.86 mark, but he continued to struggle to get hitters out. His opponent batting average jumped to .251, and he continued to walk batters at a high rate, with 18 walks in 35 innings of work. It seemed that Melendez was strikeout or nothing and it was causing his stats to explode. The Astros moved him back to the bullpen one more time in 2017 in the DSL, but again his stats went up as he went 0-3 with a 7.86 ERA over 36.1 innings of work. He lost almost all control of his pitches walking almost 15% of the batters he faced and the Astros ended up giving up on him.
The Chicago White Sox would be the team to give him his next shot as he signed a Minor League deal before the 2018 season. Melendez had his best professional season as a starter for the DSL White Sox going 4-4 with an impressive 1.54 ERA over 70.1 innings of work. His strikeout rate was higher than ever at 33% and his walks were way down. Because of the better control, his 96 mile per hour fastball worked better and fooled more opposing hitters. He was almost untouchable with a .154 opponent batting average and became an ace of the White Sox DSL staff. However, the White Sox did not protect him as the Padres selected him in the Rule 5 Minor League draft and promptly flipped him to the Pirates for cash.
With Melendez already being 22-years-old, the Pirates decided to move him to Low-A Greensboro where he spent the majority of 2019. In 28 relief appearances, Melendez went 2-3 with a 5.13 ERA out of the Greensboro bullpen. He seemed to have lost all the momentum he had from the year before and started walking batters at a high rate again. His strikeout numbers went down, but that was partially due to a drop in workload as he set down 73 batters in 47.1 innings of work. However, his biggest problem was the fact that he couldn't strand base runners, with a bad strand rate of 62.5%.
Where to Next
As Melendez gets ready to take on 2021, his big thing is going to be keeping the walk numbers down.he has shown in the past that when he is controlling his pitches he can be a dominant force on the mound. With a fastball that reaches the upper 90s, he could develop into a dominant reliever. The problem is if his control is off, he can almost be detrimental to a bullpen. At 23-years-old, Melendez is getting older for a Low-A prospect and is going to have to make some big strides quickly to be an MLB prospect. I expect him to return to Low-A Greensboro in 2021, with the hopes of making it to at least Bradenton by season's end.
With so much work to do in his development, I don't see him getting picked up in this year's Rule 5 Draft. He was already picked up once and things didn't work out, so I don't see the Pirates needing to protect him. Since his velocity seems to fade the longer he pitches, it would make sense that Melendez stays in the bullpen for the 2021 season. He will be able to use his high-powered fastball to leave hitters swinging behind the ball. He also needs to focus on stranding runners on base whenever they do reach against him. Melendez is another guy who is on the fringe in terms of his professional baseball career, and he needs a good season to keep him in the Pirates ranks.
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