More relaxed Meneses seeks return of home run power

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Nothing has ever been handed to Joey Meneses. He’s always had to earn his way through baseball, up to and including his long-awaited major-league debut in 2022.

Which is why, even on the heels of his remarkable opening two months with the Nationals, Meneses acted last season like he still needed to prove he deserved the job.

As he now prepares for his third season in the big leagues, the 31-year-old first baseman finally acknowledges he worries less about his standing on the roster.

“Maybe a little bit relaxed on that part,” he said. “But I don’t like to think this year is going to be easy. The first year, you want to prove you can do it. This year, I’m a little more relaxed.”

Meneses is in no danger of being cut at the end of spring training. Barring an injury, he’s going to be in the Nats’ Opening Day lineup, almost certainly somewhere in the middle of that lineup, tasked with delivering clutch hits the way he did last year. He may or may not be part of the organization’s long-term plan, but he’s most definitely part of the short-term plan.

All this despite the fact he regressed as a hitter last season.

Nobody expected Meneses to duplicate his otherworldly stats from his 56-game debut in 2022: a .324/.367/.563 slash line with 13 homers and 34 RBIs. But the drop-off in his power numbers – he hit the same 13 homers but did so while playing in 154 games, with a slugging percentage that plummeted to .401 – was significant and raised questions about what type of hitter this guy really is.

There were a number of theories to explain Meneses’ struggles. He had a hard time adapting to full-time DH duties. He saw fewer fastballs from pitchers who finally had a book on him. He may have been hampered by a nagging knee ailment that didn’t prevent him from playing but perhaps prevented him from driving the ball with authority.

Any or all of those theories could be true, though Meneses insisted the issue with his knee – which manager Davey Martinez first revealed in December – had no bearing on his performance, nor prevented him from playing the field.

“I don’t think that affected me during the season, actually,” he said. “I don’t think that was the reason I played DH. I know it’s because we had a great defense. I suppose I was DHing because we had a better defense.”

Dominic Smith, unquestionably a better defensive first baseman, was released in December and just signed a minor-league deal with the Cubs. The Nationals’ notable free-agent pickups this winter (Joey Gallo, Nick Senzel, Jesse Winker) are slated to play left field, third base and DH, respectively.

That leaves Meneses as the regular first baseman by default. He won’t play the position every single day, but the plan for now has him there most of the time. And he fully embraces that plan.

“I like it much better, because I feel like I’m in the game,” he said. “Last year was my first year DHing. I didn’t know how to do it. Sometimes I went to the cage trying to warm up between every inning. I was learning. It was hard. That was kind of tough for my mind.”

For whatever it’s worth, Meneses’ offensive numbers last season were much better on the 19 days he played first base (.333/.372/.630) than the 131 days he served as DH (.265/.313/.361).

No matter his position (or non-position) on the field, Meneses was consistently the best run producer in the Nationals’ lineup. What he lacked in home-run power he made up in the form of RBI singles and doubles. He finished with a .363/.396/.494 slash line over 182 plate appearances with runners in scoring position. That allowed him to drive in 89 runs, 20th-most in the National League. He had the lowest home run total of any major leaguer with at least 70 RBIs, underscoring his ability to drive guys in via simple clutch base hits.

“For me, the run production is what we’re looking for,” Martinez said. “Of course I love home runs. I’ve always said home runs are sexy. But he’s one guy we count on to drive in those runs. Back in the day, I watched the St. Louis Cardinals. They had one guy who could hit home runs. It was Jack Clark. I saw Tommy Herr hit (eight) home runs and drive in (110) runs. That’s productive, to me.”

Perhaps nobody in the majors was better at stepping to the plate with a runner on third and calmly lining an RBI single to right than Meneses. And he doesn’t want to lose that part of his game, which comes naturally to him.

He does, however, want to start pulling some more balls in the air to left field, which ideally leads to more doubles and more homers.

“That’s the hardest part,” he admitted. “We’re working on that. Hopefully this year I can find the point to doing that, too.”

The Nationals aren’t asking Meneses to launch 30 homers and deliver an OPS over .900. They’d just like to see a bit more power in the right situations, not at the expense of those patented RBI singles.

Meneses will do his best to comply. He’ll do so still appreciating the fact he’s in the big leagues at all, but perhaps a bit more confident about his job security this time around.

“It was never easy for me. I’m always thinking of that,” he said. “Those things I’ve been thinking, not intentional, but in the back of my mind. I think this year is going to be better. I’m going to be more focused and relaxing on baseball.”