Former Red Sox Farmhand On Historic Rookie Run For Nationals

It took ten years, but Washington Nationals first baseman Joey Meneses is making quite the impact in his first Major League Baseball season.

Meneses made his MLB debut on Aug. 2 against the New York Mets, being selected from Triple-A Rochester to fill in for the recently traded Josh Bell. In the 25 games he’s played since, the 30-year-old is batting .354 with 35 hits, seven home runs and 15 RBIs. In case something looks off there, Meneses is a 30-year-old rookie who’s batting like prime Manny Ramirez — so what’s the deal with this guy?

Well, he was a member of the Boston Red Sox organization last season.

Meneses signed a minor-league deal with Boston prior to the 2020 season, but his contract was delayed to 2021 due to the pandemic. In his lone season with the Red Sox organization, he split time between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester, batting .284 with 15 home runs and 70 RBIs. After the season he elected free agency and signed a minor-league deal with the Nationals.

Since then, as they say, the rest is history. Meneses finally got his big league call in early August and has absolutely raked since. He has the most hits for a rookie through 25 games (35) in Nationals history and gave Washington its first walk-off win this season with a two-run blast Thursday night.

Solid start to a career for a guy who’s played for 18 teams over ten seasons.