Meneses to Society

 

Joey Meneses hits lots of things. It is a year since he took Washington by storm, and he is still hitting lots of things. In fact, you can make the case that he has hit more things this year, as he's got 49 RBIs right now and will pass 100 hits this week. Because of the way WAR works, last season was better for Meneses because he struck out less and his more home runs, but Meneses can still hit for power, contact and multiple bases, and considering that he still plays for the Washington Nationals, this is a very good thing.

Though...one of the Nationals' best all-around hitters is a 31-year-old sophomore who's already paling in comparison to his rookie year.

That's really the thing about the Nats, they have great players but they all have these goofy asterisks attached to them that hold the team back from feeling legitimate. Their two best players are kind of immune from this, Lane Thomas and Jeimer Candelario, they're imperfect but are making this team somewhat respectable. But like, you get all these young breaths of fresh air in the lineup and they all turn out to be in their late 20s. Alex Call is great, he's good for the team, but he's already spent enough time in the minors, he's 28 right now. Stone Garrett has some punch, he's 27 and a sophomore. 

I think the biggest thing about this team is that it consists of so many high ranking prospects. Keibert Ruiz, Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, C.J. Abrams, Michael Chavis, Jeter Downs, Derek Hill...Stephen Strasburg I guess. But the first bunch of them, were all high ranking prospects in their own systems, and were all let go to make room for bigger options. Abrams and Gore got traded because the Padres had proven options both at shortstop and in the rotation. Chavis got dealt to make room for Trevor Story. Ruiz was parted with because Will Smith wasn't going anywhere. And so they're all trying to make it work here, even if they're all clearly not worth it enough to still be on the teams that developed them. Thomas coming here for Jon Lester was a rare foresight by a team dealing with the Nats. Everything else, they probably knew what they were doing.

And so that's where this team is at. People who could have been stars in other markets doing alright in this one. Dom Smith only has 6 home runs, clearly Pete Alonso blocking him in Queens wasn't the problem. C.J. Abrams has 16 steals and 36 RBIs but still isn't the defender we thought he'd be. Ruiz, after a great full-year in Washington last year, is dangerously okay. And all they have to play this week is disappointing teams that are, at the very least, better than them.

I don't know...what this means for the Nats' eventual development. I don't know when this team will be able to compete again. If the Reds are any indication, it could happen at any moment, but the Nats don't have the farm system the Reds do. Though...they do have that Wood guy they got for Soto, so who knows.

Coming Tomorrow- Only in Kansas City can someone I've literally never heard of completely outdo an entire team of people paid to play good baseball.

The Latest in 30-Year-Old Rookies

 Joey Meneses is the latest in an interesting trend recently, and that trend is career minor leaguers making the show and making up for lost time in SECONDS FLAT.

The news outlets fawned over the story of Wynton Bernard, the 31-year-old who finally got a shot for the Rockies, as well as Nate Fisher, the financial analyst who'd given up on the game til the Mets came calling, and Mark Appel, the former #1 draft pick who retired, came back and made the Phillies. These are always cool, but I worry about the fleeting nature of a lot of them. For instance, you definitely heard about Fisher getting called up by the Mets, but you probably haven't heard about the fact that Fisher, because of team control rules being what they are, already having been DFA'd by the Mets after ONE GAME. And yes, I get it, it's a formality, the Mets will likely not release Fisher and simply send him back down to Syracuse, but...the general consensus is that these stories have a lot of novelty and not a lot of other significance.

I mean, you remember the story of Jim Morris making it to the Rays but not that the Rays cut him after 2 years. You remember the majesty of Adam Greenberg finally making it back to the plate after 10 years but not that he struck out and never played again. And you remember the joy of Chris Coste in Philly during the 2006 season, but not that the Phils waived him in favor of the slightly more amicable defensive abilities of Paul Bako in order to compete for a World Series.

This shit generally doesn't end well. It's a nice STORY, but unless you're an anomaly, generally those good feelings don't always last if your glorious achievement is just making the show.

But then you have Meneses. Career minor leaguer, drafted by the Braves in 2011, carried til he hits AA in 2017, then picked up by Philly, where he becomes a pretty memorable part of the 2018 IronPigs season. He then goes off to the Japanese leagues, where he only hits .206 in 28 games, and cools down in the Mexican leagues. In 2021, he made a name for himself as a member of the WooSox and kept on fighting to make a major league roster. This year in Rochester, Meneses hit 20 home runs and 64 RBIs. And, after the Nats got picked clean at the deadline again, it was finally time for the longtime utility man to make the majors.

Since coming up, Meneses has been a jolt of energy for the Nats, batting .318 with 21 hits and 5 homers. It's clear that he's no Juan Soto, and considering that the Nats also have 34-year-old sophomore Yadiel Hernandez and 41-year-old DH Nelson Cruz, it doesn't set the best example for new rookies, but...he's already a big part of this team, and he's finally achieving his dream of making the show. 

The end could be as fleeting for Meneses as it was for Morris, Greenberg and Coste. But I hope he enjoys every last second of it.

Coming Tomorrow- A power hitter for a team that's burned through a lot of valid choices this year.