Arizona Diamondbacks' Ivan Melendez looks for another impressive minor league season

Ivan Melendez is excited to be in his first big-league spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks, not even two years out of college.

He already has a sense of where he thinks he will start the 2024 baseball regular season: in Double-A Amarillo, where the Diamondbacks prospect and second-round draft pick in 2022 finished 2023 ranked No. 7 on MLB Pipeline's Arizona prospect rankings.

"I did pretty well last year. So hopefully, won't be there too long," Melendez said. "But you know, you just take it day by day. It's a hard game."

Melendez, who on Sunday officially was one of nine players reassigned to the DBacks' minor-league camp, could be a rapid riser through the Arizona system if he produces the offensive and power numbers he put up last season in High-A Hillsboro, then Amarillo. The 24-year-old first baseman and third baseman from El Paso, who was the 2022 winner of the Golden Spikes Award for the nation's top amateur baseball player, led all Diamondbacks minor leaguers with 30 home runs.

Between Hillsboro and Amarillo, Melendez batted .272 with 22 doubles, two triples and 76 RBIs. At Hillsboro, he became the first Hops player to hit for the cycle at the team's stadium, Ron Tonkin Field, and he hit four home runs in his first three games with the Sod Poodles last July.

Melendez posted those stats despite missing three weeks of the season with a strained left Achilles tendon.

"I think I started off like 1-for-30 (actually 2-for-28) to start the season, which is normally how I start seasons ... But once I got my groove, then I just became super confident in Hillsboro, started to get some swings off. And then I felt once the All-Star break hit, there was no slowing down," Melendez said. "Went back to Amarillo, started off hot, then found some cold stretches. But hitting is like a roller coaster. You just gotta get your work in every day. Sometimes you get hits and sometimes you don't. You just gotta keep playing."

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Melendez struck out 146 times last season and acknowledged the knock on him offensively — a good ability to hit breaking balls but at times struggling to hit high-velocity fastballs up in the strike zone.

"Everyone's got their cold spots. You can't cover all the pitches, you know, he's good, too, the guy on the mound is a professional as well," Melendez said. "So you're not gonna win the battle every time."

That Melendez has the self-awareness to improve in a specific area is a big step in doing so, said Ian Rebhan, the Diamondbacks' director of amateur scouting.

"Even guys who are having success in the big leagues, there are holes that they can improve. I think that's everybody," Rebhan said. "I think what he's been able to do so far in the minor leagues is pretty impressive. ... From a power standpoint, from a hit standpoint, you know, he ended last year in Double-A, he's in his first big league camp, there's a lot of positives there. And I think if he can identify some of the weaknesses in his game, and with the help of his coaches and all of that, and then put in the work, he's one that I would have a ton of faith in being able to make those adjustments."

Rebhan and Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo like how Melendez carries himself as a person. Rebhan said the Diamondbacks want good players who are also good people.

"You get to watch them on the field and see their talent on the field. But I think a lot of times that (character) makeup is the separator among good players, and we got to meet with him before the draft and really get to know him pretty well and talk to the coaches there in Texas, who he was close with, and you just knew you were getting one of the hardest workers in the building," Rebhan said. "And he does. He works his tail off every day. And he's open to coaching. He wants to be really good. He has that desire."

Lovullo just wants Melendez to be himself.

"I want to see what that person looks like. I don't like fakers. He's not. I don't like phonies. He's not. I like real people that are themselves no matter what environment they're in. And it's hard. It's hard for a young player to come in and be themselves in that (clubhouse) room. A lot of peer pressure," Lovullo said. "So he has been exactly that. That's the first thing that I look for in a player.

"He's got touch power in his bat. He's learning what our concepts are on the defensive side, which is about being consistent and about barreling up baseballs and about setting up pitchers and not missing the pitch he's looking for," Lovullo added.

Melendez is a first baseman and third baseman. He played third in high school and junior college, then exclusively first on defense at Texas. With the Diamondbacks, he has played both spots in spring training games.

At some point, Melendez could be the DBacks' future first baseman. As current Arizona first baseman Christian Walker — from whom Melendez can observe a great deal about the work it takes to be a major leaguer and good character — nears free agency, 2024 could be important for Melendez to show he can be Walker's successor down the road.

"With Christian's work ethic and Ivan's work ethic and those two being able to kind of rub elbows a little bit, there's a lot of what Christian does really well both from an on-the-field standpoint and from a makeup standpoint," Rebhan said. "I think there's nothing negative that can come away from Ivan spending time with him. I think it'd be great experience for him."

Melendez dreams of the big leagues. Previous Golden Spikes winners have had good if not great major-league careers, including the likes of Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Adley Rutschman, Andrew Benintendi, Stephen Strasburg, Alex Gordon and Kris Bryant.

"I think about the future all the time and what it holds, but I try to just do my job. Just trying to take care of the ball on defense, do my work in the cage," Melendez said. "Obviously, it's not an easy game. So I try not to think too far ahead because anything could happen, you know, you could get released, you could get cut, get traded, anything."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks' Ivan Melendez keeps a level head about hitting, future