Editors Note: This is the latest player profile in our 40-man breakdown series that we have started here at the Nats Report. Check out our other player profiles.

Joey Meneses

• Position:  1B, DH
• Current status: 2nd year Pre-Arb (Arb-Eligible 2026, Free Agent 2029)
• How acquired:  Signed as a minor league free agent, 1/7/2022
• 2023 Grade: C+
• 2024 Opening Day Projection: Starting first baseman and cleanup hitter
• 2023 stats: 154 G, .275/.321/.401, 36 2B, 1 3B, 13 HR, 89 RBI, 99 OPS+, .314 wOBA, 96 wRC+, 0.5 bWAR/-0.2 fWAR

2023 Analysis: After homering in his long-awaited MLB debut and providing some found money consolation to Nats fans in the immediate aftermath of the Juan Soto trade, there was some optimism surrounding Meneses entering 2023, particularly after he raked for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. Then he simply stopped hitting for power, hitting a grand total of two (2) bolts through the first three months of the season despite being etched in stone in the cleanup spot every day by manager Davey Martinez. He hit four homers in three games against Texas in the final series before the All-Star break, giving fans some hope that the late-blooming monster who hit .324/.367/.593 in the final two months of 2022 was back, but never really got the power stroke going again after the layoff, finishing with as many home runs in 154 games as he had in 56 the prior season. What he did do quite well was flick opposite-field singles past the second baseman with runners in scoring position, but lumbering DH types like Meneses are not paid to slap seeing-eye ground balls, they are paid to hit dingers (especially when they are no great shakes in the field, which Joey is not). This winter we learned that he was dealing with a knee issue for most of the 2023 season, one that Martinez claimed definitely sapped his power output.

2024 outlook: With the DFA of Dom Smith, it appears that the Nats are planning to have Meneses back in the field more often in 2024 (part of the strategy for having him DH so much - 131 games - in 2023 was because of the knee), almost certainly as the everyday first baseman. In his 19 games playing first base last year, he hit about the same (.333/.372/.630) as he did in 2022, so there’s some hope that putting a glove on makes him a better hitter at the end of the day. So long as he produces at an acceptable rate, there’s no reason for the Nats to not run him out there every day; he turns 32 in May and isn’t eligible for arbitration until after next season. A full season of the 2022 Joey (and 2023 at-first-base Joey) is a 30-bomb force in the middle of the lineup, one who may not walk a ton but will get to enough pitches to do some damage. If the 2023 version is what he is, then he’s a cromulent enough but unexciting placeholder until Yohandy Morales or someone else is ready to supplant him in due time. Hopefully, the knee troubles are behind him and he can go back to hitting with the thump he showed in 2022.