MJ Melendez
Week: 6 G, 20 AB, .400/.429/.700, 8 H, 3 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 1 BB, 5 K, 0/1 SB (Triple-A)
2026 Season: 64 G, 226 AB, .257/.339/.588, 58 H, 17 2B, 2 3B, 18 HR, 28 BB, 69 K, 5/11 SB, .288 BABIP (Triple-A) / 56 G, 120 AB, .192/.315/.350, 23 H, 5 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 17 BB, 50 K, 0/1 SB, .284 BABIP (MLB)
Ryan Tayman had one hell of a week. The catcher appeared in three games and logged five hits, four of which went for extra bases- he hit a double and three home runs- resulting in a .500/.615/1.500 triple slash
line and 2.115 OPS on the week. But therein lies the problems: he only appeared in three games this week. When I decide Player of the Week, games played is something I look at; a player could post a 3.000 OPS for the week, but if they only play in two games, is it really fair to overlook the player who posted a 1.250 OPS over a full six-game week? I don’t think it is, and for that reason, MJ Melendez is our Player of the Week.
With his win, MJ Melendez is the first minor league player in 2026 to win the nod four times, prompting the McNeil Rule to be invoked. He is the first hitter to have the McNeil Rule invoked since Jacob Reimer won his fourth Player of the Week last August, during Week Twenty-Two of the 2025 minor league season. Congratulations MJ (Mervyl Samuel)!
R.J. Gordon
Week: 1 G (1 GS), 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K (Double-A)
2026 Season: 20 G (20 GS), 89.2 IP, 91 H, 55 R, 45 ER (4.52 ERA), 39 BB, 88 K, .309 BABIP (Double-A)
It hasn’t been a great season for R.J. Gordon, but he is at least finishing things on a strong note. The right-hander came into the 2026 season ranked 14 on the 2026 Amazin’ Avenue Top Prospect list on the power of a very solid 2025 that saw him post a 3.86 ERA in 67.2 innings with the Brooklyn Cyclones and a 3.69 ERA in 61.0 innings with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. He began the 2026 season on the 7-Day Injured List with a lat injury. He missed the first month-and-change of the season, ending his rehab assignment and toeing the rubber with Binghamton for the first time on May 10th.
The 2024 13th rounder pitched poorly in May, starting four games and posting an 8.38 ERA in 9.2 innings, allowing 17 hits, walking 5, and striking out 10. Clearly still shaking off the rust, he was only slightly better in June, posting a 7.50 ERA in 18.0 innings split between five starts, allowing 21 hits, walking 11, and striking out 13. In July, it appeared that the right-hander was finally getting his sea legs under him. In five starts, Gordon posted a 4.33 ERA over 27.0 innings, allowing 29 hits, walking 11, and striking out 26. Finally, in August, the right-hander had a good month: over five starts, he posted a 2.17 ERA in 29.0 innings, allowing 21 hits, walking 10, and striking out 27.
Gordon’s injury and the time needed to fully recover from such a thing muddies the waters a bit in terms of gauging his development. The right-hander is a pitcher that does not exactly have premium stuff, and despite his solid 61.0 innings in Binghamton in 2025, the potential for him to run into the wall is very real. Given the stark difference in his performance in May and June as opposed to July and August, I think it is safe to say that Gordon was still dealing with the lingering effects of his lat injury and still needing time to work himself into pitching shape. In the first two months of the season, batters hit .333/.409/.561 against him with an 11% swinging strike rate, averaging roughly 3 innings per game. Over the course of the next two months of the season, they hit .250/.289/.435 against him with a 13% swinging strike rate, averaging roughly 5.2 innings per game.
Gordon now has a total of 150.2 innings pitched in Binghamton and has a cumulative 4.18 ERA in those innings; if you want to be charitable and eliminate the 27.2 innings he pitched in May and June of this season where he allowed 24 runs, he then has a cumulative 3.37 ERA in 123.0 Double-A innings. I think it’s a given that he will begin the 2027 season with the Syracuse Mets, but beyond that, I don’t know how effective he will be. Jack Wenninger has a similar profile to Gordon- a low-to-mid-90s fastball, an above-average changeup, and fringe-average gyro & sweeping sliders- and he has had a rough go of Triple-A for much of the season, posting a 4.24 ERA in 108.1 total innings, allowing 88 hits, walking 64, and striking out 115. Gordon, along with whatever other upper-level Mets prospects, should form an impressive-sounding rotation on paper, but given the offensive environment of the International League, whether or not they are impressive is a separate matter.
