Four Arizona Diamondbacks non-roster invitees to watch in Spring Training
The Arizona Diamondbacks have 26 non-roster invitees heading into Spring Training, but these four will be interesting to watch.
The Arizona Diamondbacks announced their list of non-roster invitees to Spring Training earlier this week. There are 26 in total. None of them are on the team’s 40-man roster. However, there are some that should be very interesting to watch. Some are top prospects that will be fun to watch. Others may have a chance to earn not just a 40-man roster spot but also an Opening Day roster spot.
Ivan Melendez
Ivan Melendez was the Diamondbacks’ 2022 second-round pick. Although he is heading into his age-24 season and didn’t do badly at Double-A, Melendez does not have a very good chance of making the Opening Day roster. But it’s not out of the question that the D-Backs will call up Melendez later in the year. Plus, he should be fun to watch during Spring.
Melendez stepped to the plate 426 times for Hillsboro and Amarillo, batting .272/.345/.578 with a .400 wOBA and 139 wRC+. Melendez earned his nickname “The Hispanic Titanic” for the prodigious power he showed off throughout college, and that carried over into last season. Melendez went yard 30 times with a .306 isolated slugging percentage. He was one of just two other minor league hitters with 400+ plate appearances and an ISO over .300.
Melendez can potentially be a 30+ home run hitter in the big leagues. He’s able to generate a ton of pop from his 6’3”, 225-pound frame. However, this power comes with some downside. That downside is his plate discipline. Melendez struck out in over a third of his plate appearances with a 34.3% K% while having an unimpressive 7.8% walk rate. He had the lowest BB:K ratio at just 0.21 among minor league hitters with 400+ PAs.
Melendez split his time in the field between third base and first base. Although his arm is strong enough to make the throw from third effectively, he has a lack of range that will likely force him over to first base in the long term. His reaction time may also play better over at first base than at third.
Melendez may not be a perfect prospect, but he’s definitely fun to watch. I would be looking forward to watching him launch some tanks in Spring Training this season. It’s very possible we see Melendez in the bigs in the first half of the year. He could serve as a 3B/1B/DH and platoon with Joc Pederson if necessary.
Austin Pope
The Diamondbacks opted to leave Austin Pope unprotected from the Rule 5 draft, and it’s a little surprising that he didn’t get picked. Pope may not be an overpowering right-handed reliever, but he did great at Triple-A Reno last season despite being in the extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Pope pitched a total of 66.2 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, working to a 3.65 ERA, 3.60 FIP, and 1.38 WHIP. The right-hander had an outstanding 29.3% K-rate along with a solid 8% walk rate. Pope was also immune to the long ball with an HR/9 rate of 0.81. Pope’s ERA and WHIP are a tad higher than you’d like to see from a reliever, but he did have a .381 batting average on balls in play, indicating some potential positive regression in his future.
Pope pitched 22 of his innings at Reno, where he had a 2.45 ERA, 29.2% K-rate, and 8.3% walk rate. Keep in mind this is the PCL. The league average ERA is 5.70, while the average walk rate is 12.3%. Pope could have been even better, given opponents had a .424 BABIP against him. In a larger sample size, this is likely closer to .300.
Pope sits at 93-95 MPH with around 2300 RPM. The reliever throws two breaking balls. The most often used of the duo is his slider, which sits lower-80s but with around 2450-2500 RPM. Pope takes some speed off for his curveball, which is closer to around 79-80 MPH but with a slightly higher spin rate. Pope throws from a high arm slot with a quick and simple delivery.
Pope could definitely find himself on the team’s Opening Day roster. His numbers at Reno were awe-inspiring. The final bullpen spots are not set in stone. Given Pope’s solid stuff combined with his strong numbers from 2023, Pope is an intriguing case.
Ronaldo Hernandez
The backup catcher role to Gabriel Moreno is up for grabs. The 2023 Diamondbacks’ backup catcher, Jose Herrera will enter Spring Training with an opportunity to grab it, but former top prospect Ronaldo Hernandez is one of the multiple backstops in the running for the job. There’s a possibility he could run away with it if he has a good Spring Training.
Hernandez was formerly a top 100 prospect with the Tampa Bay Rays in the late 2010s. But he was traded to the Boston Red Sox in the 2020-2021 off-season. But his progression has since stalled out. He’s still on the young side of baseball at 26, and while he may no longer have the prospect pedigree he once had, he’s an interesting player nonetheless.
The D-Backs signed Hernandez to a minor league contract after he batted .242/.336/.445 with a 93 wRC+ for the Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliate. Hernandez’s calling card is his power, and he blasted 17 home runs in 393 plate appearances with a .203 isolated slugging percentage. He also walked 10.4% of the time, a career-high rate, with a solid 17.6% strikeout rate. But take his BB% with some context, as the league average was 11.8%, and Hernandez has never posted a BB% within 1% of his 2023 mark.
Hernandez has had trouble with his defense throughout his minor league career. He split his time between catcher and DH last year and has allowed at least a dozen passed balls in six separate seasons. But for what it’s worth, he only allowed five in 430 innings caught, the best of his career by a margin of four.
Hernandez hit lefties very well with a .291/.380/.494 slash when facing southpaws in 2023. He could serve as an occasional platoon for Pederson, if they don’t sign another free agent to share the role with him, as well as give Moreno a day off here and there as well. Hernandez will be one of the multiple catchers the D-Backs will consider for the backup catcher role, and his performance in Spring could heavily influence that.
Kristian Robinson
2023 was an extremely important year in Kristian Robinson’s pro baseball career. Prior to last season, Robinson had last played pro ball in 2019. He didn’t play in 2020 because of COVID canceling the minor league season, but he also ran into visa issues that stemmed from an arrest caused by assaulting an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer. But even though he hadn’t played any competitive games in three seasons and wouldn’t even appear in 2023 until Late May, Robinson picked things back up like he was never gone.
Robinson played one game at each level between the Arizona Complex League to Double-A. In total, he had 272 plate appearances, batting .283/.383/.532. Robinson had 14 home runs with a strong .249 isolated slugging percentage. On top of plus power output, Robinson went 23/30 in stolen base attempts, showing off his wheels. Overall, Robinson had an outstanding .411 wOBA and 140 wRC+.
Robinson has the potential to have double-plus power with plus speed. If he reaches his potential, he may have some 30/30 seasons. He’s also a good enough fielder that he could stick in center field long-term. But he also has a cannon of an arm that will play in both corners. But there are questions about how his power will play because of his hit tool. He has a big swing that more advanced pitching could take advantage of. Robinson had a 10.7% walk rate but a 31.6% K% as well.
The 23-year-old is a long shot to make the Opening Day roster, but like Melendez, it will be fun to see him connect on some long home runs during Spring Training. 2024 will be an even more important year to his career. He’ll probably start the season out at Double-A, which is the largest step between any minor league level and where you start to see the separation between the top prospects and minor leaguers. If Robinson can continue to hit well and/or cut down on the strikeouts, he could play a role in the D-Back's long-term outfield plans. Imagine an outfield with two 30/30 threats in Robinson and Corbin Caroll.