The all-star break shortened the week, but MJ Melendez still made it look like a full slate. In Triple-A, he went 7-for-13 with three homers, two straight three-hit games, and a line that jumped off the page: .538/.571/1.231. He also drew one walk and struck out twice, with no stolen-base attempts.
Melendez has been raking in Syracuse all month. In 12 games there in July, he’s hitting .341/.431/.864 with seven home runs.
That kind of production is eye-catching no matter how you slice it, even if the International League’s offensive environment makes the numbers feel a little wild. The larger picture is still clear enough: he’s been useful, and he’s putting himself back into the conversation.
That matters because the Mets may soon have room to create. As the club starts moving the few assets it has, playing time at the major league level could open up again, and Melendez is one of the names that could benefit.
He was once a top Royals prospect, but his earlier run in Queens didn’t go well. In 56 games and 120 at-bats with the Mets, he hit .192/.315/.350 with 23 hits, five doubles, one triple, four homers, 17 walks, and 50 strikeouts.
Whether he’d be any different if he landed back in New York is another question entirely. The source here doesn’t sugarcoat it: there’s no guarantee he’d suddenly become a force, and there’s even real doubt about whether he’d be viable at all based on what he showed in those 120 at-bats. But with the rest of 2026 looking increasingly unlikely to feature compelling baseball, it’s as good a time as any to sort through what the Mets already have and what they might lean on in 2027 and beyond.
The other standout from the week was Noah Hall, who turned in a sharp one-start line in High-A: 6.0 innings, one hit, no runs, no earned runs, two walks, and five strikeouts. It was a clean outing in a season that has been more uneven overall.
Hall’s 2026 line now sits at 18 games, 15 starts, 82.1 innings, a 4.81 ERA, 74 hits allowed, 59 walks, and 86 strikeouts. He was drafted in the seventh round in 2023 out of South Carolina after pitching there for his junior and senior seasons following a transfer from Appalachian State. Across those two college years, he posted a 3.99 ERA in 117.2 innings, giving up 113 hits, walking 40, and striking out 121.
He got a few late looks with St. Lucie and Brooklyn after the draft, then added a handful more appearances in the Arizona Fall League.
His real pro breakout came in 2025, when he spent the full season in Coney Island and logged a 2.72 ERA over 112.2 innings, with 80 hits allowed, 63 walks, and 115 strikeouts. Still, he didn’t move up when 2026 began and returned to Brooklyn for a second straight year.
At 6-foot-0 and 195 pounds, Hall brings a delivery with some unusual flavor. He only uses one pre-delivery quirk when the bases are empty, lifting his lead foot and tapping the ground with his toe before going into his leg lift.
From there, he drops and drives with good extension, throwing from a low-three-quarters, almost sidearm arm slot with a long arm action in back. That angle helps him create grounders and strikeouts, but it also comes with control issues; his cumulative 14.4% BB% reflects that.
His mix starts with a fastball in the low-to-mid-90s, usually on the lower end of that range and touching the upper end. The pitch has some arm-side movement, aided by his arm slot and the pitch’s active spin and seam orientation.
The changeup is the real weapon, and it’s described as one of the best in the Mets minor league system right now. It sits in the low-to-mid-80s, giving him about 10 mph of separation from the fastball, and it features heavy arm-side fade and sharp vertical tumble.
Hall’s slider rounds out the arsenal. It’s less polished than the changeup, but still a fringe-average pitch.
When he firms it up, the pitch gets tighter, with sharper horizontal slice and harder vertical break. When it comes in slower, it loosens into a more slurvy shape with bigger horizontal and vertical movement.
One thing that has changed this season is the batted-ball profile. In 2025, Hall had a 49.3% groundball rate, a 23.6 line drive rate, and a 27.1% flyball rate.
This year, those numbers have shifted to a 41.7% groundball rate, a 20.4% line drive rate, and a 38% flyball rate. His groundball rate has dropped by about 10%, while his flyball rate has risen by roughly the same amount.
His HR/FB% has only ticked up a little, but more balls are falling in for hits, as shown by a BABIP nearly .40 points higher than in 2025 and an opponent batting average nearly .40 points higher.
Players of the Week 2026
Week One/Two (March 27-April 5): Hayden Senger/Cam Tilly
Week Three (April 7-April 12): A.J. Ewing/Christian Scott
Week Four (April 14-April 18): Randy Guzman/Jose Chirinos
Week Five (April 21-April 26): A.J. Ewing/Channing Austin
Week Six (April 30-May 3): A.J. Ewing/Jonah Tong
Week Seven (May 5-May 10): Ryan Clifford/Jonathan Santucci
Week Nine: (May 19-May 24): Ryan Clifford/Channing Austin
Week Eleven: (June 2-June 7): Vincent Perozo/Frank Camarillo
Week Thirteen (June 16-June 21): Nick Morabito/Jonathan Santucci
In Other News...
Mets Already Have One Costly Problem Getting Harder To Escape
Bo Bichettes first season in Queens has not gone the way the Mets hoped when they brought him in on a three-year deal, and the early returns have only made the next few winters more complicated. His contract includes player opt-outs after the 2026 and 2027 seasons, a structure that gives him flexibility but also leaves the Mets with a tricky piece to manage if they ever decide the fit is no longer right.
The on-field performance has only added to the concern. Bichette is hitting .253 with a .670 OPS, numbers that sit well below his usual standard and make any future move harder to envision. For a team that already knows how difficult it can be to navigate expensive roster decisions, this is the kind of problem that tends to linger until someone finds a reason to take it off the board. [Read more 🡒]
Freddy Peralta Just Reopened A Frustrating Mets Debate About Stearns
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For the Mets, that is the uncomfortable part. Stearns has been open to making moves, but the organization has still drawn a line when it comes to pricey long-term commitments for pitchers, even when the market keeps pushing clubs toward them. Peraltas latest outing did not settle the debate, but it did sharpen it again, because the question is not whether the Mets need more pitching help. It is whether the kind they have been reluctant to buy is exactly the kind they keep ending up needing. [Read more 🡒]
Surprising Mets All-Star Trade Idea Could Split Fans Fast
As the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaches, San Diego is still looking for ways to bolster its pitching staff, and a recent proposal from former MLB general manager Jim Bowden has put an unexpected Mets angle into the conversation. The idea would send prospect Kash Mayfield to New York in exchange for Freddy Peralta, a move built around the belief that the right-hander could still be a useful bounce-back arm and give the Padres needed depth for the stretch run.
Peraltas season has been uneven enough to make any pursuit feel risky, which is why the proposal has already the kind of split-fan energy that usually follows a deadline rumor. For the Mets, it would mean weighing the value of a young arm against the chance to add a pitcher with a track record that still carries real appeal, even if this year has made the market more complicated than it looked a few months ago. [Read more 🡒]