Three years after they drafted him in the second round out of Oregon State, the American League West-leading Houston Astros called up left-handed outfielder Jacob Melton to take the place of utility man Zach Dezenzo, who was placed of the injured list with inflammation in his left hand.
Less than three weeks later, Melton’s brief big league career has come to a screeching halt — a presumably temporary one, but frustrating nonetheless — as a strained right ankle suffered in Friday’s Astros victory over the Minnesota Twins sent the 24-year-old rookie to the 10-day injured list.
But according to Houston general manager Dana Brown, Melton will be sidelined for a lot longer than 10 days.
While declining to give a specific target date for Melton’s return, Brown told the Houston Chronicle that the organization’s No. 2-ranked prospect will be out of action for “at least four weeks or so.”
Melton’s June 1 MLB debut was a memorable one, as in his second at bat, he used his 30.5 feet-per-second speed to get himself down the first base line in time to turn a ground ball to second base into his first big league hit — albeit after an unsuccessful challenge by the Twins.
Otherwise, Melton was off to somewhat slow start to his career prior to the ankle injury. He appeared in nine of 11 possible games since the call-up, recording seven hits with a pair of walks. Only one of his hits has gone for extra bases, a triple. In his small sample size, Melton was hitting .241 with a subpar .601 OPS.
But slow starts are not unusual even for highly touted rookies. Melton is listed as the 118th-ranked overall prospect by Baseball Prospectus.
The No. 1 prospect, Roman Anthony of the Boston Red Sox, was called up on June 9 and had played in seven games as of Tuesday, with only two hits and an .095 batting average to his name.
One of Anthony’s hits was his first MLB home run, coming on Monday in a road game against the Seattle Mariners.
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Nonetheless, the Astros were pleased with what they have seen from Melton, making his injury especially frustrating.
“I think frustrating is a good word to put on it,” Melton told MLB.com. “I think a lot of guys go through it at some point in the season and this year has been a little bit tougher than most, but it’s not going to be anything too big. We’ll work through it and come back.”
Melton also dealt with injuries to his back and groin earlier in the season, playing for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, Houston’s Triple-A affiliate.
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