Alejandro Melean

Organization Prospect Rankings

• 
  Ranked Toronto Blue Jays #22 prospect in 2023
  BA Grade/Risk: 40/Medium
  
  Track Record: Melean was one of several breakouts for the Blue Jays on the pitching side in 2022. He dominated over his first nine appearances with High-A Vancouver and allowed six earned runs over 32 innings with 35 strikeouts to just eight walks. Melean was then promoted to Double-A New Hampshire in late July and made eight starts for the Fishercats to finish his season.
  
  Scouting Report: Melean is a stout righthander with a strong build who throws exclusively from the stretch. Despite being just 22 years old, he is close to physically maxed. He made strides with his strike throwing late in 2021, and it carried over into 2022. He's been mostly limited to 50-60 pitches per start in 2022, and rarely saw the order the second time through. A polished strike-thrower with a high aptitude for sequencing, he can manipulate his slider to add late depth and he generates ground balls with all three of his pitches. His pitch mix consists of a four-seam fastball that sits 92-94 mph and touches 95 mph at peak with ride and heavy armside run. His primary secondary is his changeup in the 79-81 mph range with heavy tumble and fade. Melean isn't stingy about its usage either as he's more than comfortable snapping off a right-on-right changeup. The breaking ball is a sweepy slider in the same velocity range as his changeup, giving him the ability to work east to west with his secondaries. Both his changeup and slider generate chases outside the zone and have limited batters to very little hard contact.
  
  The Future: Melean's three-pitch mix and strike-throwing ability allow him to fit a variety of roles. His best fit long term is as a swingman reliever capable of giving you multiple innings out of the bullpen.
  
  Scouting Grades: Fastball: 45. Slider: 55. Changeup: 50. Control: 50

• February, 2023 Scouting Report
  BA Grade/Risk: 40/Medium
  
  Track Record: Melean was one of several breakouts for the Blue Jays on the pitching side in 2022. He dominated over his first nine appearances with High-A Vancouver and allowed six earned runs over 32 innings with 35 strikeouts to just eight walks. Melean was then promoted to Double-A New Hampshire in late July and made eight starts for the Fishercats to finish his season.
  
  Scouting Report: Melean is a stout righthander with a strong build who throws exclusively from the stretch. Despite being just 22 years old, he is close to physically maxed. He made strides with his strike throwing late in 2021, and it carried over into 2022. He's been mostly limited to 50-60 pitches per start in 2022, and rarely saw the order the second time through. A polished strike-thrower with a high aptitude for sequencing, he can manipulate his slider to add late depth and he generates ground balls with all three of his pitches. His pitch mix consists of a four-seam fastball that sits 92-94 mph and touches 95 mph at peak with ride and heavy armside run. His primary secondary is his changeup in the 79-81 mph range with heavy tumble and fade. Melean isn't stingy about its usage either as he's more than comfortable snapping off a right-on-right changeup. The breaking ball is a sweepy slider in the same velocity range as his changeup, giving him the ability to work east to west with his secondaries. Both his changeup and slider generate chases outside the zone and have limited batters to very little hard contact.
  
  The Future: Melean's three-pitch mix and strike-throwing ability allow him to fit a variety of roles. His best fit long term is as a swingman reliever capable of giving you multiple innings out of the bullpen.
  
  Scouting Grades: Fastball: 45. Slider: 55. Changeup: 50. Control: 50
• December, 2022 Scouting Report
  BA Grade/Risk: 40/Medium
  
  Track Record: Melean was one of several breakouts for the Blue Jays on the pitching side in 2022. He dominated over his first nine appearances with High-A Vancouver and allowed six earned runs over 32 innings with 35 strikeouts to just eight walks. Melean was then promoted to Double-A New Hampshire in late July and made eight starts for the Fishercats to finish his season.
  
  Scouting Report: Melean is a stout righthander with a strong build who throws exclusively from the stretch. Despite being just 22 years old, he is close to physically maxed. He made strides with his strike throwing late in 2021, and it carried over into 2022. He's been mostly limited to 50-60 pitches per start in 2022, and rarely saw the order the second time through. A polished strike-thrower with a high aptitude for sequencing, he can manipulate his slider to add late depth and he generates ground balls with all three of his pitches. His pitch mix consists of a four-seam fastball that sits 92-94 mph and touches 95 mph at peak with ride and heavy armside run. His primary secondary is his changeup in the 79-81 mph range with heavy tumble and fade. Melean isn't stingy about its usage either as he's more than comfortable snapping off a right-on-right changeup. The breaking ball is a sweepy slider in the same velocity range as his changeup, giving him the ability to work east to west with his secondaries. Both his changeup and slider generate chases outside the zone and have limited batters to very little hard contact.
  
  The Future: Melean's three-pitch mix and strike-throwing ability allow him to fit a variety of roles. His best fit long term is as a swingman reliever capable of giving you multiple innings out of the bullpen.
  
  Scouting Grades: Fastball: 45. Slider: 55. Changeup: 50. Control: 50
• April, 2022 Scouting Report
  BA Grade: 45/High
  
  Track Record: Signed out of Venezuela in 2017 Melean took a big step forward with his strike-throwing late in 2021, and it carried over to this season. He&#39s been mostly limited to 50 to 60 pitches per start this season, rarely seeing the order the second time through. Melean at just 21 years old was promoted to Double-A in late July.
  
  Scouting Report: A shorter righthander with a stout strong build that works from the stretch exclusively. Melean is maxed out physically, and is fairly polished as a pitcher at this point, knowing how to manipulate his slider to add more late break and has the ability to generate groundballs against all three of his pitches. His fastball sits 92-94 mph, touching 95 mph at peak with heavy bore. His changeup is his primary secondary, as he&#39s more than comfortable throwing it against righthanded and lefthanded hitters. The pitch gets heavy armside run and tumble with 10+ mph of velocity separation and over 15 inches of vertical break separation on average. He&#39ll mix in a sweepy slider at 79-81 mph that gets over a foot of horizontal break with true sweeper shape. Both his changeup and slider generate chases and whiffs and have limited batters to very little hard contact.
  
  The Future: Melean has the body and operation of a reliever but has the ability to execute with three different pitches consistently giving him a chance to start long term. His ability to get through the order twice remains the biggest concern, but with multiple stints in the injured list in 2022 it&#39s difficult to know if he can handle a starter&#39s workload. In the end Melean is likely a strong middle reliever with the ability to get out righthanders and leftahanders with few split issues.