The next three seasons, his numbers did not improve much; however, that changed when, during 1977, now as a player of the Brujos de Guayama in Guayama, he participated in 29 games, netting 295 points while shooting for 131 shots made out of 264 taken, averaging 10.2 points per game, with an average of slightly under 50% of his shots made.
A productive player as a member of the Criollos, Melendez was then traded to the Polluelos de Aibonito after the 1985 season.
The Polluelos were building a team that could contend for titles during the late '80s, and they had Angel Santiago, Enrique Aponte and Rolando Frazer, to whom Melendez could feed the ball during plays.
During his first season as a Polluelo, Melendez scored 14.0 points a game, fed for 6.9 assists (surpassing the 200 assists in one season for the first time in his career with 229, Melendez led the BSN league in assists that year)[2] and grabbed 2.5 rebounds a game while shooting 57% from the field, 42% from the three point line and 77% from the free throws line, helping the Polluelos win their first, and, as of 2021, only league championship by beating the defending champions, Jose Ortiz, Bobby Rios and the Atleticos de San German in seven games during the BSN Finals.
During the 1987 season, the defending champions Polluelos continued being a viable contender to repeat as titleholders, but Melendez's personal numbers decreased a little bit.
The Polluelos returned to the BSN Finals, where they were defeated by the Titanes de Morovis in seven games.