Crown Jewels: MJ's New Swing, Royals Relief and the Silly Shredder

The Royals' left fielder showed off a new swing on Instagram, and it's interesting. Plus, a look at some bullpen options and a silly tool at MLB Network.

We are now less than three weeks to pitchers and catchers reporting and there are still way too many good players available, both via free agency and trade. Something has to give and soon, which means there should be some news coming in relatively short order, right? I think? Or maybe we’ll just see a bunch of guys lingering on the market into spring training and teams will only make moves based on needs that arise due to injuries or guys coming to camp in decidedly not the best shape of their lives and…okay I’m rambling because this offseason is annoying me.

It’s not that the Royals haven’t done anything because they obviously had. They spent big-ish to keep their third best starter. They filled the hole at the top of their lineup that was one of the biggest holes any playoff team had. They went out and they backfilled the back of their rotation that was weakened by fixing the hole at the top of the lineup. It’s just that they’re not quite there yet. If the season started today, Michael Massey is probably hitting fifth and, I don’t know, Hunter Renfroe sixth. I’d like to see Renfroe on the short side of a platoon (if on the roster at all) and Massey down to sixth or seventh. I’d like to see one more reliever added because I think they have a chance to have an excellent bullpen, but there’s certainly variance there.

They won 86 games last year with a Pythagorean record of 91-71, so maybe their base is a bit better than 86, but most of the projections paint them as a mid-80s win team again. The Vegas win totals have them at mostly 82.5, which is, again, solid. While I still would bet quite a bit that they will get another bat, my fear right now is that the market is holding things up so much that the other bat just doesn’t exist. While I don’t think Anthony Santander was really the answer, he might have been the last slam dunk middle of the order bat on the market and now he’s gone. Your free agent “power” bats in the outfield are now Austin Hays (.171 career ISO), Adam Duvall (.182/.245/.323 in 2024), Randal Grichuk (platoon bat vs. LHP) and, well, there are others I guess, but woof.

The trade market is still there. Taylor Ward hasn’t been moved. Adolis Garcia hasn’t been moved. Starling Marte hasn’t been moved. None of the Cardinals guys have been moved. Most players haven’t been moved, in fact. So there’s time and I know the Royals and all the teams are working to get things done, but tick tock, gentlemen. Let’s get this show on the freaking road.

MJ’s Revamped Swing

At this point, people are tired of hearing about MJ Melendez, and I totally get it. He was a monster in the minors in 2021 at 22 and then came to the big leagues in 2023 and wasn’t nearly as bad as people thought, but wasn’t a star. He was actually a league average hitter in 2022 as a rookie, but just got there in a way that wasn’t terribly aesthetically pleasing. He was awful to start the 2023 season before having a really solid second half that gave some hope. But 2024 was more of the same. He had an extended stretch of success following a small adjustment he made, hitting .284/.346/.539 in 186 plate appearances from June 14 to September 1. But overall, it was a step back in his third year (second full year) in the big leagues.

So people are done with him. The defense isn’t good enough to support a bat that just doesn’t seem to develop. But the big thing that everyone always comments on is his swing. Speaking of things that aren’t aesthetically pleasing… There is just a lot of movement in his swing. This winter, he’s apparently been putting videos up in his stories of his entirely reworked swing. And I miss them every time because stories expire, so if you don’t see them, you’re just toast. I was alerted to one by Caleb in the comments (thank you again!) and now have a chance to look at it from a screen recording, which is nice. It’s a massive change.

Look, I don’t know if this is going to work. I still think he’s very front foot heavy with this swing, but the moving parts are lessened by so much here. Everything about this approach and this swing is different than the one he has had since well before he was a member of the Royals. It’s tough for a player to make swing changes like this. For one, the muscle memory for these guys is insane. They’ve been doing things a certain way since before they could probably even remember, and to fail at their craft for the first time ever has to be humbling.

But I know that Melendez's batted ball data is solid, even though it took a step back in 2024. I know that one of the biggest issues for him has been swing and miss. And another one has been handling the outer edge, even including some pitches categorized as being in the heart of the plate. On pitches on the other side of the middle for him that are still decent to swing at, he hit .197 with a .342 SLG. He hit it hard enough, I guess, but just couldn’t tap into what is clearly pretty impressive power. By closing up a little bit and quieting things down, you have to hope that it can help him be impactful on pitches across the whole plate.

I don’t blame you if you look at this and don’t care one bit. At some point, a guy has to perform and he simply hasn’t, at least not consistently. My opinion is that they still need an outfielder who turns Melendez into a platoon bat, but as I’ve said about 8,000 times, I have a soft spot for a guy who puts in the work. Melendez absolutely does that. Some guys don’t, so I appreciate this at the very least.

A Little More Relief

I mentioned this in the open, but I’d like to see the Royals add one more reliever. I kind of love the idea of going to get someone who has done it in the ninth inning, whether it’s Kenley Jansen or Carlos Estevez or David Robertson. I really wanted Kirby Yates, but I get being a guy toward the end of your career and wanting to chase a ring, as fruitless an endeavor that might be in baseball with how the playoff system is. But I would really like to see someone who can give the Royals a little freedom with Lucas Erceg or even with a new guy.

Even if they don’t look at closers, there are a lot of pitchers out there who I think can be a big benefit to the team. I probably would look to righties as well because I think they’re pretty well stocked from the left side with Angel Zerpa, Daniel Lynch IV, Sam Long, Evan Sisk and maybe Kris Bubic if he doesn’t stick in the rotation. So who is out there? Honestly, quite a bit. John Brebbia, Kyle Finnegan (I guess he’s a closer), Tommy Kahnle, Adam Ottavino, Ryne Stanek, Spencer Turnbull and Jose Ureña all would add some solid depth to this bullpen, though admittedly in different ways.

I just look at this group - Erceg, Hunter Harvey, John Schreiber, Zerpa, Lynch, Long and maybe Chris Stratton - and know that someone is going to flop. Maybe Harvey continues to struggle or Schreiber pitches like he did for two months in 2024 or really any of them. I would like to have one more stable force in there because even Erceg isn’t a guarantee of success (as much as any reliever is a guarantee).

The trade market also offers some possibilities. The Dodgers have, I believe, 71 players on their 40-man roster now so they’re rumored to be shopping some relievers. Ryan Brasier probably has about as much variance as anyone on the Royals, but he has a good track record at least. I could see them shopping Evan Phillips too. The Royals actually drafted him originally, though he didn’t sign. The Rockies always seem willing to trade relievers who flourish when they leave Coors Field, so there are some options there. I still like Declan Cronin from the Marlins. The point is there are options.

I believe the Royals are going to add a bat, I do. But I also think that if certain trade options don’t materialize for various reasons, the options are pretty limited on the free agent market. They always were limited even before the handful of decent options were signed. Even those had their warts, as you know. So why not strengthen a strength a little bit more? I think the Royals have a very underrated pitching staff right now, especially in light of what they did in 2024, but I think they could really sharpen that strength with another addition in the bullpen.

Bobby Witt Jr. Is Somehow Still Being Underrated

Following a .332/.389/.588 season worth 10.4 fWAR that resulted in a second-place MVP finish in one of the only years that wouldn’t be an award-winning season is pretty cool for the Royals shortstop. And yet, there was still something pretty stupid in the way he was rated this week on MLB Network. Every year for a long time, they’ve done their top 10 right now and looked at every position. There’s always a host and an analyst who give their list and then they have a computer called The Shredder that analyzes the data “perfectly” and creates their list. So when I saw this tweet, I was confused.

My first thought was that I read it wrong and it was the top players overall, but I quickly realized that, nope, they were ranking the top shortstops in baseball. And somehow Witt was ranked as fourth-best. If you were wondering, and I ultimately was, he was ranked behind Gunnar Henderson, Corey Seager and Francisco Lindor. Look, Seager and Lindor have undoubtedly had better careers to this point than Witt. They’ve just had more time. But come on, people.

Witt ranked first in average, first in OBP, first in SLG, third in home runs (so there’s that), first in stolen bases, first in ISO, first in wRC+, first in OAA, third in DRS, first in Def, first in runs scored, first in doubles, first in triples and first in RBIs among that quartet. I know that it’s not just from one year, but this is also list of the top shortstops right now, meaning for the 2025 season. And if you add in 2023 as well, he was first in average, second in OBP, second in SLG, fourth in home runs (though they were 62, 63, 64 and 65 which is fun), first in stolen bases, fi…you get the idea. I know it’s a stupid thing to complain about and even give the time of day to here, but it’s slow and this is just perplexing me so much.

I think you can make an argument that if you’re starting a team today, you’ll take Henderson over Witt. I wouldn’t make it, but it’s out there. He’s a great player who can hit the ball over the wall and run and I think I could see him hitting 50 homers in a season while I can’t imagine that with Witt. Again, I’d pick Witt, but I don’t think you can go wrong with either. And while Lindor and Seager are great and might ultimately have better seasons than Witt in 2025, I don’t know how you can even begin to argue for them being better. I think it’s time that The Shredder recalibrates.

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