Melendez Breaks Out After Early Struggles
Through his first nine games of the season, first baseman Ivan Melendez had as many hits as he did stints on the injured list: two.
His season—and his professional career, really—had not gone according to plan, but the depth of the 23-year-old’s struggles helped get him back on track.
“I was like, ‘It can’t get any worse at this point,’ ” Melendez said. “You get to a certain point and you’re like, ‘You’ve got what you got, and you go out there and play and tune out all the noise.”
After that miserable start, Melendez proceeded to be just the type of slugger the D-backs envisioned when they drafted him in the second round in 2022 from Texas.
In 49 games from May 5 to July 9, Melendez hit .298/.364/.667 with 18 homers for High-A Hillsboro, numbers befitting a player who won the BA College Player of the Year award as a senior in 2022.
That earned him a mid-July promotion to Double-A Amarillo.
Melendez’s college days left him ill-prepared in one respect: He had never had to deal with failure. But he had heard it was coming, and he wound up leaning on advice he received, including from all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, an assistant coach at Texas.
“Tulo and other guys who played in the pros before, they kind of explained the roller-coaster and waves that come with success and failing,” Melendez said. “Whenever I would deal with that failure, I’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s what they’re talking about.’ It was coming. This game is not easy.”
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Melendez struggled in a 29-game pro debut out of the draft, then went just 2-for-his-first-28 this year, a stretch that included an 11-day absence after being hit by a 95 mph fastball near his left eye on April 21.
Melendez struck out at a near 34% clip at High-A and was continuing to work on his defense, including seeing time at third base.
—NICK PIECORO
McCabe Shows Intriguing Power Upside
The Braves have graduated or traded so much prospect talent recently that the organization is light on position talent.
Switch-hitting third baseman David McCabe, drafted in the fourth round last year out of Charlotte, is a candidate to help fill the void.
McCabe blasted 30 home runs over his last two collegiate seasons in Conference USA. Former Braves vice president of scouting Dana Brown loved the power he provided from both sides of the plate.
The 23-year-old McCabe got off to a good start in his pro career, hitting his way out of Low-A Augusta after 42 games this season. Through 68 games for Augusta and High-A Rome he hit .272/.385/.473 with 12 home runs, 45 walks and 74 strikeouts.
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound McCabe was drafted as a third baseman, but the Braves acknowledge he might require a
