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Ex-Yankee prospect Melky Mesa has signed a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals. He was released, not designated for assignment, by the Yankees back in September to remove him from the 40-man roster. It seemed possible that that they were looking to re-sign him, since they had previously done the same with David Adams before re-signing him, but alas.
Mesa made his major league debut in 2012 and joined Yankee history when he missed third base while racing home. It seemed like a quirky beginning to maybe a longish career as a replacement-level player on the bench. Yeah, ok, he wasn't exactly promising, but it's a big deal any time the Yankees bring up someone from the farm system. He has been in the organization for eight year, since 2006. That's a loooong time.
In only five games this season, Mesa accumulated three singles and two doubles before being sent back down. Unfortunately, though he's been an above-average hitter in the minors, he's also collected a tremendous amount of strikeouts over the years. He had a 32.3% strikeout rate in 2012 and it only got worse when it jumped to 33.7% in 2013. That's 230 strikeouts in two seasons. Yikes. Also, he's never had a walk rate higher than 9.0% at any level. That combination will definitely be a problem.
Maybe his his right-handed bat would have been useful at some point, but he's almost 27 and really won't be amounting to much.
