The Mets welcome a long-time foe to camp as a new teammate! Joey Meneses signed a deal with the Mets in late November after a three year stint with the Nationals.
Joey originally signed with the Braves back in 2011 and never broke into the majors with them. He became a free agent in 2017, signed with the Phillies before the 2018 season, signed a contract with the Red Sox a couple of years after and signed with the Nationals in 2022.
He made his Major League debut at 30-years old with the Nationals, against the Mets after the 2022 trade deadline tear down of the Nationals roster. He got his first hit, a home run, in that game and went on to have an excellent rookie season hitting .324/.367/.563 with a 164 OPS+ and 1.0 WAR. He played a full season in 2023 and was by most metrics almost exactly league average hitting .275/.321/.401 with a 100 OPS+ and a 0.5 WAR. Last season was first down season in the majors with his OPS dropping to .593, OPS+ to 70 and a -0.5 WAR.
Meneses had some visa issues which has delayed his arrival to Mets camp. Things have been cleared and the first thing he did was face Brandon Sproat in live batting practice. Sproat went on to strikeout Meneses in three pitches, but we also just saw what Sproat did to the Nationals, so maybe this is just Sproat’s thing (picking on current and former National players).
Meneses will be competing to be the back up first basemen on the Mets. The main person in front of him right now on the depth chart is Jared Young, who has seen a lot of early action this spring. Beyond Young there is Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and Jesse Winker. There’s a lot that Joey needs to cut through.
Now that Joey is here, we’ll be looking to see how much playing time he gets, if he’s hitting more like his 2022, 2023 self and honestly if he wants to stay with the Mets after spring training if he doesn’t get a roster spot. Meneses gives the Mets valuable depth that is very familiar with the NL East, and we’re hoping he has a great camp!
