Mark Melancon

The only proven major league piece that the Pirates received in the Hanny/Holt deal was RHP Mark Melancon, 27, a back-end reliever who was a closer for the Astros and a set-up man (briefly) in Boston.

He was born in Wheat Ridge, Colorado and attended Golden High School, where MM was a multi-talented athlete. He lettered four years in baseball and basketball and three times in football. He was pretty good in all of them, as Melancon was named to the All-State Team twice in baseball and football and once in basketball.

Melancon played on a Golden Demons team that won the Colorado 4A State Championship in baseball, and still had the focus to graduate as a member of the National Honors Society. He was ranked the #3 high school prospect in the state, and the Dodgers took a thirtieth round flier on him in 2003, adding his name to a class that included Chad Billingsley, Matt Kemp, Russ Martin and Andy LaRoche. But Melancon had made a verbal commitment to Arizona, and he kept it.

The hard-throwing righty set a single-season freshman record in 2004 by making 29 appearances, and followed that by going 2-0 with two saves in five postseason outings as Arizona returned to the CWS for the first time since 1986. He was also selected to the US National Team and picked up five saves for the Red, White and Blue.

After that strong summer performance, Melancon claimed Arizona’s closer’s job as a sophomore in 2005. He appeared in 34 games, and set a Wildcat single-season record with 11 saves. In 2006 he set the school’s career saves record at 18, and his 66-1/3 innings pitched was more than anyone on the staff beside the team’s top tandem of starters. In hindsight, all those frames may not have been such a good thing, and the workload was about to catch up to his arm.

During the offseason, Melancon was included among the 40 players named to the watch list for the Roger Clemens Award honoring the top NCAA Division I college baseball pitcher. But MM didn't get to vie for it, as he was shut down for his junior campaign with a strained elbow ligament. He didn’t require surgery - yet.

Baseball America ranked him as the 35th best draft prospect overall in 2006, even without tossing a pitch. But his elbow injury scared off a lot of clubs; they suspected future TJ surgery was in the offing (they were right). He dropped to the ninth round, when the Yanks, who had checked out his arm apparently to their satisfaction, took a chance on him with the 284th overall pick. They inked him to a $600K bonus, the slot value for a mid-second rounder. Melancon joined Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, George Kontos and even Daniel McCutchen as draftmates.

After signing his deal, Melancon was assigned late in the year to the short season Staten Island Yankees of the NYPL in 2006. He whiffed eight in 7-1/3 IP, then picked up the save in both of SI’s wins in the league championship series, including the title clincher.

The Yankees sent Melancon to briefly lived Hawaii Winter Baseball league after the season to pick up a few more innings, but he had to be shut down after complaining of elbow soreness. That led to Tommy John surgery in November, costing him the 2007 season.

But he recovered OK, and by fall of 2007, he was doing some Instructional League rehab. Despite missing the year, BA rated him the Yankees’ 11th best prospect after the season, due in part to his good showing in instructional league.

The Yankees invited Melancon to camp in 2008. That's the year he fast-tracked his way through the Bronx Bomber organization, zipping from Class High A Tampa, AA Trenton and AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. His overall line was 8-1/2.27 in 41 outings covering 95 IP, with 89 K, a 0.958 WHIP and opponent BA of .202. For all that, MM didn't get a call to Yankee Stadium; the NY FO thought after his injury comeback that he had worked enough innings. He went into the 2009 season as the Yankees' #9 prospect, according to BA.

After starting 2009 at WBS, Melancon was called up to the majors for the first time on April 25th. He made his MLB bow the next day against the Boston Red Sox, pitching two scoreless innings. MM yo-yo'ed abck and forth between AAA and the show. He ended up 0-1/3.86, but his K rate and walk rate were the same at 5.5 per nine, so it was apparent that he wasn't ready for the bright lights yet.

He again began at WBS in 2010, and made just a pair of appearances for the NYY, getting pretty well lit up, giving up four runs on seven hits in four frames. MM continued to be strong for WBS, going 6-1-6/3.67 with 58 K in 56-1/3 innings, though control continued to be a problem with five walks per nine.

The Yankees were pretty deep in minor league arms and cash while Houston wasn't, and Melancon was traded along with Jimmy Paredes to the Astros for Lance Berkman right at the July 31st deadline.

Melancon got a quick three-game AAA evaluation at Round Rock before joining Houston. He worked 17-1/3 frames, striking out 19, with a late season line of 2-0/3.12, and the walks came down a little, though still at four per game.

He went from Astro set-up man to closer after Brandon Lyon fell to a labrum injury. MM handled the job fairly well, going 8-4/2.78 ERA, with 8.0 K/9 in 74-1/3 innings in 2011, saving 20 games in 25 opportunities. His strikeout rate stayed fairly strong at eight per nine, and the walks dropped to a much more manageable three per nine.

On December 14th, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox for infielder Jed Lowrie and starter Kyle Weiland. The Astros traded him to Boston after the season for Jed Lowrie on December 14th, when he was at high value. That value would drop off the cliff quickly in Beantown.

Melancon was slotted in as the Bosox set-up man, but that plan didn't last but four games before he was bombed back to AAA Pawtucket with an ERA of 49.50 on April 18th.  He served up five gopher balls while facing a mere 18 batters after giving up just five longballs total in all of 2011. After a couple of months of getting himself together and dominating the International League (11 saves, 0.83 ERA, 11.2 K per nine in 21 outings), Melancon was recalled to Boston on June 10th after an elbow injury to Rich Hill.

He tossed to a 4.19 ERA after that, but that couldn't save his season-ending slash of 0-2-1/6.20. Except for an ugly eight homers in 45 IP, his other peripherals were OK - 8.2 K against 2.4 walks per nine, a 1.267 WHIP and 50% ground ball rate. Nevertheless, Boston said "bah humbug" to him during the holidays, and so now he's in Pittsburgh as part of the Hanny Christmas sale.

There are a couple of reasons to expect a bounce back from Melancon. His fly ball rate (26.5% last season) wasn't appreciably higher, so the home run surge against him looks like an outlier. His career numbers - 53.8% groundball rate, 8.5 K, 2.7 BB - look good. Melancon's control seems to have  improved every season. He's returning to the NL Central, certainly a more pitcher friendly division than the AL East and one he's had success in.

And he's controllable. The right-hander won't be arbitration eligible until after the 2013 season and won't enter free agency until after the 2016 campaign (though he is out of options).

He doesn't have the stuff or the ceiling that Hanny has, and he does show same side tendencies. Righties put up a career .226/.293/.336 line against Melancon while lefties hit .253/.342/.402 against him. That's an 86 v 119 OPS. It's a noticeable split, and one that may come into play in lefty-friendly PNC Park.

MM should fit in with guys like Jason Grilli and Jared Hughes; he's in competitive and combative mode from the second the bullpen gate swings open. He's a power pitcher - his four seamer can touch 97, and both his regular and cut fastball clock in at 93. Melancon has a plus curve to go with it. The Bucs may want to work on his change - until he's comfortable using it, lefties will likely keep that favorable split against him.

With Melancon now aboard, it looks he's the set up man for Jason Grilli and the Bucs have their Plan A in place for the back end of the pen. Let's hope he breaks from the gate a little faster this coming season than he did for the Red Sox in 2012, as his career stat slash suggests he should. 

The Trade Part II: Holt for Melancon & DeJesus

Well, the Hammer fell in part one of the Bucco-Bosox swap. Now for the second act. The Bucs sent infielder Brock Holt, more accomplished with his stick than his mitt, to the Red Sox for RHP Mark Melancon and IF Ivan DeJesus.

Holt .292 in September with the Bucs, but his glove limited him to a bench role. He was going to be in a battle to break camp with the big team. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports thinks he's a good grab by Boston, saying "The Pirates didn’t want to trade him, but they evidently considered him more of a second baseman than a shortstop, and Holt wasn’t about to supplant Neil Walker."

The 25 year-old DeJesus, like Jerry Sands, came to Boston from LA in the big August Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett deal. He's a good glove guy with some pedigree in the minors (he was a second round pick in 2005), putting up career .298 BA and .370 OBP, though without much power. In 2008, De Jesus hit .324 with an OBP of .419. DeJesus was named to the All-Star Futures Game and Baseball America's All-Star second team. But he broke his leg the next season and hasn't had the same panache since.

Sox Prospects tabs him as a utility infielder., and DeJesus has lived up to that projection in a very small, 80 at-bat sample. He's hit just .205 in a couple of MLB stays, and Boston DFA'ed him in November (while keeping Pedro Ciriaco). At least DeJesus doesn't count against the 40-man roster, which needs cut down by a player. (EDIT - later in the day, the Bucs announced that RHP Chad Beck was DFA'ed.)

RHP Mark Melancon came into the league as Mariano Rivera's heir apparent in 2009; last year, he found himself tossing BP in the AL East and ended up back in AAA. Sox Prospects thinks it's the neighborhood, with this report: "Late inning reliever with a 92-95 mph fastball with decent movement and a plus low-80s curveball. Has shown success in small market of Houston, but mental toughness is still a question mark."

The snowball effect may be the mental jello they're referring to. Melancon's ERA was blown up by five beat downs out of 41 appearances when he gave up 21 of his 31 runs and six of his eight homers. Without them, he pitched to a 2.14 ERA. Good and bad outings all count the same in the stat book, of course, but show the volatility of judging a reliever's effectiveness by ERA alone.

He can touch 97 with a cutter and a curve, and even with a dismal 2012 line of 0-2/6.20, he struck out 8.2 batters and walked 2.4 per nine with a 50% ground ball rate. His problem last year was the long ball; he gave up eight in 45 IP while the rest of his peripherals were well in line. So the FO is betting on 2012 being an outlier season, and the metrics agree with them.

Melancon's two years in the NL Central with the Astros were strong (20 saves in 2011), and that's the guy the FO was looking at. The Bucs will give him every opportunity to be Jason Grilli's Tonto and be the set-up guy in 2013. He's 27, but controllable as he doesn't hit arb until 2014.

The Pirates couldn't get the Red Sox to surrender two guys prominently hyped as their targets, LHP Felix Doubront or SS Jose Iglesias. So the debate will go on whether they may have gotten a better haul if they waited until camp or even the deadline and dispelled the questions regarding Hanny. That was apparently a risk they didn't care to take in his walk season. Additionally, it avoids a round of musical chairs in the bullpen.

The FO was said to have also been in talks with Tigers, Royals, Rangers and the Dodgers before dealing Hanny to the Red Sox, so it seems like there just wasn't a robust market for him, at least for a big-time prospect. So they got a set-up guy and some kids. It's unfortunate, but the Bucs' big payoff for Hanny would have been at the last deadline, not 2013's; that August/September Pirate nose dive cost more than pride.

Still, it's probably fair value. Rosenthal's article header is "Pirates, Red Sox both score in deal," although the Bosox picked up a frontliner, which is more than it appears the Buccos did.