Call to the pen
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Joey Meneses making up for lost time with Washington Nationals

By David Hill

Sep 5, 2022; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Washington Nationals first baseman Joey Meneses (45) reacts after hitting a one run single against the St. Louis Cardinals during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 5, 2022; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Washington Nationals first baseman Joey Meneses (45) reacts after hitting a one run single against the St. Louis Cardinals during the sixth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /
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This moment has been a long time coming for Washington Nationals first baseman Joey Meneses.

He spent a decade in the minors, a part of the Braves, Phillies, and Red Sox organizations, with a year in Japan in between. Signed as a minor league free agent this past offseason, he spent the majority of the season back in Triple-A until the Nationals sent Josh Bell to the Padres as part of the Juan Soto trade. In need of a first baseman, Meneses made his major league debut out of necessity.

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To be fair, Meneses had done his part to deserve this opportunity. He had another solid showing in Triple-A, posting a .286/.341/.489 batting line with 20 homers and 14 doubles in his 414 plate appearances. That performance was enough for the Nationals to give the 30 year old a chance to see what he could do.

Meneses hit the ground running and has not stopped. The Nationals’ first baseman now has a .344/.375/.582 batting line in his 128 plate appearances entering Wednesday, hitting seven homers and eight doubles. He has 42 hits in his first 30 games, which, as Mark Zuckerman from MASNsports pointed out, makes him the 13th rookie in the past 50 years to have that many hits in 30 or fewer games.

It would have been easy for Meneses to give up on his major league dream. He was entering his age 30 season with just 168 games at Triple-A in nine minor league seasons, making a chance at the majors seem so far away. It would have been easy to return to Japan or head to the Korean Baseball Organization in hopes of finding stardom elsewhere.

Instead, he kept plugging away, hoping that he would get that chance. FInally, after all of those long bus rides and years of wondering if he was good enough, Meneses is proving that he deserved this chance long ago. He has his major league opportunity and is not letting go.

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Joey Meneses was called up out of necessity. Now the Washington Nationals’ first baseman is one of the great stories of the 2022 season.

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