Washington Nationals Lose Once-Promising Rookie to NL East Rival
The Washington Nationals lost a player with three years of experience in their organization and a potential option at first base when Joey Meneses agreed to a minor-league deal with the New York Mets on Friday.
As first reported by the New York Post, the deal is a minor league contract with no guarantees. He was a free agent because the Nationals waived him at the end of the season and Meneses elected for free agency after he went unclaimed by the rest of the league.
It ends a once promising tenure for the Mexican-born Meneses, who started his professional career with Atlanta in 2011 but didn’t make his Major League debut until he was promoted to the Nationals in 2022.
His introduction set Nationals fans abuzz. In 56 games with Washington in his debut season he had a slash line of .324/.367/.563 with 13 home runs and 34 RBI. It was a promising start and it gave Washington the opportunity to give him a little rope to see if he could produce those sorts of numbers over a full season.
Plus, because he could play both first base and the outfield, he gave the Nationals position flexibility.
He played a full season in 2023 and his slash numbers dropped to .275/.321/.401. More notably, he hit the same amount of home runs he hit in 2022, clobbering 13 of them. His RBI numbers went way up to 89.
But he took a bigger hit last season, in part because the influx of young talent in the Nationals’ organization began to reach the majors and started drawing playing time at his positions. He played in 76 games with a slash line of .231/.291/.302 with three home runs and 42 RBI.
Washington sent him to Triple-A Rochester in July, where he spent the rest of the season. After that, the Nationals made the move to waive him and he elected free agency.
Meneses is likely to find playing time hard to come by in New York, where he'll be viewed as a bench outfielder and hitter. The Mets have a full complement of outfielders returning, including star Mark Vientos.
One significant pathway for playing time that could open up is if Pete Alonzo signs a free agent contract elsewhere. That would make first base a competitive position for Meneses and whomever else the Mets bring in.
The Mets signed another former Nationals pitcher, Hobie Harris, who pitched for Minnesota last year. Harris pitched in 16 games for the Nationals in 2023.
