Meneses went 3-for-5 with a walk, a double, two runs scored and three RBI in Friday's 12-10 win over the Royals.
The 31-year-old continues to tear it up in May. Over his last 20 games, Meneses is slashing .361/.398/.482 with 12 runs and 18 RBI, although he has only one homer during that stretch and just two on the season. Given his 81st percentile hard-hit rate and shockingly unlucky 4.4 percent HR/FB rate, it seems only a matter of time before Meneses starts sending more balls flying over the fence.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Three hits against Tigers
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Meneses went 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI in Sunday's win over the Tigers.
All three hits were singles, but it still extended a very productive stretch for Meneses. Over his last 20 games, the 31-year-old is slashing .349/.372/.446 with five doubles, a homer, 10 runs and 14 RBI.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Back from paternity list
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Meneses was reinstated from the paternity list Friday, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports.
Meneses will return to the Nationals after he missed the team's last two contests while attending the birth of his child. He'll step back into his everyday role while Jake Alu heads back to Triple-A in a corresponding move.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Going on paternity leave
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The Nationals will place Meneses on the paternity list Wednesday, Bobby Blanco of MASNSports.com reports.
Meneses will miss at least one and as many as three games to be with his wife as she gives birth to the couple's child. Utility man Jake Alu will be called up from Triple-A Rochester to take Meneses' spot on the 26-man active roster.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Four RBI in win
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Meneses went 4-for-5 with three doubles and four RBI in Monday's 10-3 win over the Mets.
Meneses' first RBI double opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, and his second put the Nationals back on top 2-1. He struck out his third time up but responded with a run-scoring, infield single in the sixth and extended Washington's lead to 10-2 with another RBI double in the eighth. Monday's performance marked Meneses' third four-hit game of the season, but it was his first outing of the year with multiple extra-base knocks. The 31-year-old is slashing .300/.328/.394 across 40 games (177 plate appearances) and is proving his breakout 2022 campaign wasn't a fluke.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Delivers clutch homer
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Meneses went 3-for-5 with a home run, four RBI and two total runs scored in Sunday's 9-8 win over the Diamondbacks.
Meneses helped the Nationals stay within striking distance with an RBI single in the seventh inning. He made a bigger impact in his next at-bat, swatting a go-ahead, three-run homer that gave Washington a lead that would stick after Hunter Harvey converted the save. Meneses has gone 13-for-38 (.342) over his last nine contests, but 12 of those hits have been singles. For the season, he's slashing .277/.301/.362 with two homers, 14 RBI, 13 runs scored and six doubles through 33 games. He's hitting reasonably well, but his numbers are a far cry from the .324/.367/.563 slash line he had in a 56-game sample last year.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Four hits in win
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Meneses went 4-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored in Sunday's victory over the Pirates.
Meneses has been heating up after a sluggish start to the season, going 11-for-31 over his last seven games. However, the 30-year-old Menses has yet to hit for the power he demonstrated in his breakthrough rookie season, with just one home run and seven extra-base hits through his first 112 at-bats this year. He's now slashing .286/.316/.366 with 10 RBI and eight runs scored through 117 plate appearances.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Sleeper hitters for Week 6 (May 1-7)
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Joey Meneses' follow-up to his unbelievable 2022 debut has been quiet to this point, but he's begun to pick up the pace, batting .362 (21 for 58) in his past 13 games. The Nationals are one of just six teams with seven games this week and are facing some mashables in the Cubs and Diamondbacks rotations.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Four hits in win over Twins
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Meneses went 4-for-6 with a double and two RBI in Saturday's win over the Twins.
Menseses drove in the first run with an infield single in the first off Pablo Lopez, and an inning later he roped a single to center to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead. After a slow start to the season, Meneses has now picked up multiple hits in three of his last six games, and a .204 average on April 14 is now up to .259 with the strong efforts. Menseses is a flawed fantasy player, but he's one of the few Washington regulars that has offensive upside.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Finally goes deep
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Meneses went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Friday's victory over the Twins.
Meneses was excellent in 2022, slugging 13 home runs and batting .324 in 56 games, but 2023 has been a major letdown so far for the 30-year-old. He finally hit his first home run Friday, as his seventh-inning solo shot started a Washington comeback. The first baseman is hitting .227 (17-for-75) in 18 games.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Gets Sunday off
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Meneses is out of the lineup for Sunday's game against the Rockies.
Meseses will get his first day off of the young season while Stone Garrett steps in to spell him as the Nationals' designated hitter. While starting each of the first nine games, Meneses has yet to hit a home run and has scored just four times to go with one RBI.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Homers, drives in four
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Meneses went 3-for-4 with a home run, a double and four RBI in a 13-4 win over the Phillies in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. He also scored four runs and drew a walk.
Meneses had himself a day at the plate on Saturday, beginning with a three-run double with two outs in the second inning to put the Nationals up 4-1. He followed that up with a homer to lead off the fifth - his seventh long ball since the start of September, to go along with 22 RBI and 17 runs scored. It was also the rookie first baseman's 11th multi-hit game in that 27-game span.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Showcases power again Sunday
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Meneses went 2-for-5 with a two-run home run in Sunday's 6-1 win over the Marlins.
The 30-year-old rookie put the Nationals on the board in the top of the first inning with the two-run drive to center field. The home run was his second in as many days and his 12th since being called up from Triple-A Syracuse in early August. With a .943 OPS through his first 200 big-league plate appearances, Meneses has likely secured a full-time role for the Nationals entering the 2023 season.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Possible waiver wire pickups
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The guy is basically Babe Ruth at this point. I don't know what else to say about him. I understand the hesitance to add Meneses. He's a 30-year-old rookie who was unknown to everyone about two months ago, but he just doesn't let up. He homered for the third time in four games Sunday, bringing his batting average back up to .326 after it had briefly dipped below .310. It doesn't seem to matter how tough the matchups are, which is good since the Nationals still have a few quality pitchers on the schedule, but they are one of just a handful of teams with 10 games remaining. Meneses has the exit velocities to back up his production and has maintained a respectable strikeout rate throughout. No reason to back down from him now.
Meneses' matchups in the final scoring period aren't even all that favorable, but lately, it hasn't mattered. He still boasts a .324 batting average and .930 OPS and has maintained those numbers long enough that we should probably give him the stud treatment even if there's good reason to doubt he's actually a stud.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Slugs 10th homer
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Meneses went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run and a walk Wednesday against Atlanta.
Meneses took Jesse Chavez deep in the seventh inning to record his 10th home run of the season. After a slow stretch, Meneses now has three long balls across his last 10 starts, while also racking up seven RBI and six runs scored in that span. Meneses has had an impressive MLB debut, maintaining a .328/.364/.563 line across 187 plate appearances.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Four hits in Monday's loss
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Meneses went 4-for-4 with a stolen base in Monday's 5-2 loss to Atlanta.
All four hits were singles, but it was still an impressive performance for the 30-year-old rookie, who also added his first career steal in the majors and only his second at any level since 2016. Meneses has been a bright spot for a Nationals team that's otherwise just playing out the string, and he's slashing .315/.342/.493 through 17 games in September with three homers and 12 RBI.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Goes deep in loss
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Meneses went 2-for-5 with a double and a two-run home run in Saturday's loss against the Phillies.
Meneses homered off lefty starter Ranger Suarez with one out in the third to give Washington a 2-0 lead. The 30-year-old rookie has recorded three hits or more in three of his last 12 games, tallying 11 RBI over 56 at-bats. He has also shown versatility with time spent at first base in 20 games and time spent in the outfield in 23 contests.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Sleeper hitters for Week 23 (Sept. 5-11)
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Meneses is looking like this year's rebuild placeholder success story, racking up home runs and multi-hit games in a way that's completely supported by the data. The Nationals' matchups this week could be better, but they're at least in line for seven games.
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Nationals' Joey Meneses: Possible waiver wire pickups
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Despite having a nine-game hitting streak snapped Wednesday, Meneses hasn't slowed down yet. He just went 3 for 5 with three doubles the day before and is getting plenty of love from Statcast, with expected stats (.289 xBA and .537 xSLG) that just about measure up to the actual ones. The odds are against any 30-year-old rookie, but this one has seen some things, doing tours in both Mexico and Japan to keep his big-league dreams alive, and I'm not detecting any clear flaws in his profile other than a lack of speed. The depleted Nationals will keep giving him chances, and Frank Schwindel showed us last year not to discount the magic of a late-season rebuild placeholder.
