Joey Meneses’ great moment with the Tomateros de Culiacán in the Mexican Pacific League has already paid off.
The Sinaloa striker received a minor league contract with the New York Mets, with an invitation to training camp, to try to return to the best baseball in the world, with an organization with serious aspirations to be in the World Series.
“I’m very excited to be able to join this team,” Meneses told Excélsior. “A few days ago my agent spoke to me, he told me about this possibility, and we analyzed to see if it was really a good fit. We came to the conclusion that it was a very good opportunity.” ”.
After 10 seasons in the minor leagues, Meneses debuted in Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2022, at the age of 30, in the Nationals, and put up respectable numbers in his first campaign with 13 home runs and 54 RBIs, in just 56 games.
In 2023 he had trouble finding long-range hitting, and hit the same number of homers as a year before, but in 154 games.
For the 2024 season, in 76 games, he only managed to hit three homers, when he was sent to the minor leagues, and did not return for the rest of the season, although he had the best batting average on the team.
“You have to understand what baseball is like now,” Meneses explained. “You can hit for average, but it is very important, the range, hitting doubles, home runs, triples, and I gave it to us. Although it hurt, the decision is perfectly understood. that they had to take me down.
“Now I have a new opportunity, I have the advantage of already knowing what the Major Leagues are like, of already knowing what that life is like, and now I have to make the adjustments to be more effective.”
Meneses seems to have found in the Pacific, the constancy of his power and good hitting. He has a hitting percentage of .337, with 33 RBIs and seven long-range hits with the Tomateros de Culiacán.
A LIFE OF FIGHT
The Mexican baseball player spent 10 years playing in the minor leagues.
2022
dream debut
Joey Meneses debuted at age 30 and did so on August 2 with a home run against the Mets, his new team.
2023
The green one turns
CabaJoey was part of the Mexican National Team that took third place in the World Classic
2023
Power descends
After surprising in his debut season, Meneses lowered his offensive production.
2024
Sent to minors
Despite having the best batting average in Washington, Meneses was sent to the minors.
THE DATA
Meneses had 41 hits in his first 30 MLB games, a Washington Nationals franchise record for a rookie
