The Washington Nationals have just begun their offseason with a flurry of moves, as the new President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, has been very hard at work in rebuilding the organization for the future. Since taking over the position, Toboni has had almost as much on his plate as anyone around baseball, and his offseason to date certainly reflects that.
After taking over the full-time position and attempting to fill the footsteps of Mike Rizzo, who was fired during the season, Toboni has brought in a ton of new faces into the front office to fill major roles, and has also been busy building up a new staff.
That new staff, with manager Blake Butera at the helm and an entirely new coaching staff beneath him, is clearly being centered with a focus on player development, and an entirely new minor league staff is set to come soon as well. While the Nationals do not yet know which way the team will go with regard to signing a bunch of new minor leaguers, one longtime minor leaguer is actually headed out to the American League.
Joey Meneses, who once captured the hearts of Nationals fans everywhere as he ended up being one of the best stories in baseball following the infamous Juan Soto trade, is now headed to the Athletics on a minor league contract. While he has not appeared in the big leagues since the last time he put on a Nationals uniform, Meneses will factor into the top level of the minors for their system, as the Athletics currently have Nick Kurtz, the American League Rookie of the Year winner, entrenched at first base.
In his professional career as a big leaguer, Meneses has appeared in 286 games and has clubbed 29 homers and 165 RBIs to go along with a career .274/.322/.408 slash line, good for a .731 OPS. Despite the 29 homers, 13 of them came during that rookie campaign in which he captured lightning in a bottle for 56 games down the stretch, and he would go on to club only 13 in the entirety of the 2023 season in 154 games.
That was followed up by an abysmal 2024 campaign that saw him get DFA'd by the Nationals following a .231/.291/.302 slash line, good for only a .593 OPS and 3 homers in 76 games that accounted for -0.5 WAR as the team's primary Designated Hitter.
What do you think of Joey Meneses finding his next opportunity? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.