MJ Melendez kept stacking up another strong week in Triple-A, and that was enough to make him the Mets minor league Player of the Week for Week Twenty-Four.
In six games, Melendez went 8-for-20 with a .400/.429/.700 line. He doubled three times, homered once, scored a 1.129 OPS on the week, and added one walk against five strikeouts.
He also went 0-for-1 on stolen base attempts. For the 2026 season, he has put together a .257/.339/.588 line in 64 games and 226 at-bats at Triple-A, with 58 hits, 17 doubles, two triples, 18 home runs, 28 walks, 69 strikeouts, and 5-for-11 on steals.
In the majors, he hit .192/.315/.350 over 56 games and 120 at-bats, with 23 hits, five doubles, one triple, four homers, 17 walks, 50 strikeouts, and 0-for-1 on stolen bases.
Ryan Tayman made a real push for the honor after a massive three-game stretch, but the workload mattered. The catcher finished with five hits, four of them for extra bases, including a double and three home runs, and posted a .500/.615/1.500 line with a 2.115 OPS. Still, because he appeared in only three games, Melendez got the nod.
The selection also made a bit of history. Melendez became the first minor league player in 2026 to win Player of the Week four times, which triggered the McNeil Rule.
He is the first hitter to hit that mark since Jacob Reimer earned his fourth Player of the Week last August, during Week Twenty-Two of the 2025 minor league season. Congratulations MJ (Mervyl Samuel)!
On the pitching side, R.J. Gordon had a sharp outing in Double-A, even if his overall season has been uneven.
In one start, he worked 6.0 innings, allowed three hits, no runs, and no earned runs, while walking two and striking out five. For the year, he has made 20 starts in 20 appearances, thrown 89.2 innings, given up 91 hits and 55 runs, allowed 45 earned runs for a 4.52 ERA, and struck out 88 while walking 39.
Gordon entered 2026 ranked 14th on the Amazin’ Avenue Top Prospect list after a solid 2025 split between Brooklyn and Binghamton. That season, he posted a 3.86 ERA in 67.2 innings with the Cyclones and a 3.69 ERA in 61.0 innings with the Rumble Ponies. He opened 2026 on the 7-Day Injured List with a lat injury and did not return to game action until May 10, after ending his rehab assignment.
His first two months back were rough. In May, he made four starts and logged an 8.38 ERA over 9.2 innings, allowing 17 hits, five walks, and 10 strikeouts.
June was only a little better, with a 7.50 ERA in 18.0 innings over five starts, along with 21 hits, 11 walks, and 13 strikeouts. The second half of the season looked much more like the version Binghamton had hoped for.
In July, he posted a 4.33 ERA across five starts and 27.0 innings, allowing 29 hits, 11 walks, and 26 strikeouts. In August, he followed with a 2.17 ERA in five starts and 29.0 innings, giving up 21 hits, 10 walks, and 27 strikeouts.
The injury makes Gordon’s development a tougher read. He does not have premium stuff, and even with the solid work he turned in for Binghamton in 2025, there is still concern about how far the profile can go.
Over the first two months of 2026, hitters tagged him for a .333/.409/.561 line and he averaged about three innings per outing, with an 11% swinging strike rate. Over the next two months, opposing hitters dropped to .250/.289/.435, his swinging strike rate rose to 13%, and he averaged roughly 5.2 innings per start.
Gordon now has 150.2 career innings in Binghamton with a 4.18 ERA. If you remove the 27.2 innings he threw in May and June this season, when he allowed 24 runs, he sits at a 3.37 ERA in 123.0 Double-A innings.
The expectation is that he will start 2027 with the Syracuse Mets, though what comes after that is less certain. Jack Wenninger was held up as a similar type of arm - a low-to-mid-90s fastball, an above-average changeup, and fringe-average gyro and sweeping sliders - and he has had a difficult Triple-A season of his own, with a 4.24 ERA in 108.1 innings, 88 hits allowed, 64 walks, and 115 strikeouts.
Gordon and the rest of the upper-level Mets arms should look good on paper in that rotation, but the International League tends to make a mess of those expectations.
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