Categories: News

Former IronPigs slugger Joey Meneses steals show as Mexico upsets USA in WBC

Joey Meneses had a tremendous season for Triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2018. (Cheryl Pursell)

Joey Meneses was everything, everywhere, all at once for Team Mexico Sunday night, leading the team to an upset of Team USA in the second World Baseball Classic matchup for both teams.

On the ninth pitch of the game, Meneses took Nick Martinez deep for a two-run home run:

Menses reached base on an infield single in his second at-bat of the game, before hitting a three-run home run in the top of the fourth inning:

To celebrate his 412-foot home run, Meneses delivered a bat-flip that would make José Bautista proud:

Team Mexico would go on to defeat Team USA by a score of 7-2, with Meneses driving in five of those runs. None of the three Phillies on Team USA — Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto — appeared in the game after all started in Saturday evening’s win over Great Britain.

But it was Meneses who was the story of the game.

Meneses joined the Atlanta Braves organization as an international free agent in 2011, reaching the Double-A level in 2017.

The Phillies signed Meneses as a minor league free agent before the 2018 season, and he slashed .311/.360/.510 with 23 home runs and 82 RBIs for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

But after failing to get a Major League opportunity in 2018, Meneses joined the Orix Buffaloes in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. In 118 plate appearances in Japan, Meneses posted an underwhelming .651 OPS. A failed performance-enhancing drug test prematurely ended his time in Japan.

Meneses didn’t get a chance to play in affiliated baseball in 2020 — despite being in the Boston Red Sox organization — because there wasn’t a minor league season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He would play in 88 games in the Red Sox organization in 2021, splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A.

Even in 2022, it took the Washington Nationals doing a full-scale organizational teardown for Meneses to finally get a call to the big leagues.

But the 30-year-old finally made his Major League debut in August, shortly after the Nationals had traded away Juan Soto and Josh Bell. While the Nationals would finish with a league-worst 55-107 record, Meneses was one of the most productive sluggers in the final weeks of the season. In just 56 games, Meneses slashed .324/.367/.563 with 13 home runs, 34 RBIs, a .930 OPS and a 1.5 WAR, per FanGraphs

Meneses is currently projected to be the DH for the Nationals, and his performance Sunday evening suggests that while he fell through the cracks for too long, he’s going to be a thorn in the side of the Phillies and the league as a whole.