May 14, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of a Atlanta Braves cap and glove on the field prior to a game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
May 14, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of a Atlanta Braves cap and glove on the field prior to a game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports /
The Atlanta Braves have been known for signing international guys a year or two after most stop scouting guys. One of those guys signed “late” was Joey Meneses out of Mexico. After tearing up high-A this year, what could he be?
Who Is He?
Meneses was signed at 19 out of Mexico, signing in July and immediately getting into pro ball. While he was seen as a pitcher by many, the Braves focused him as a hitter, and he’s shown solid swinging his entire career. His first assignment was the Dominican Summer League, and in just 19 games, he hit .206/.286/.206 with a 7/14 BB/K ratio.
The Braves saw enough in that short stint to bring Meneses stateside in 2012. He flashed some surprising athleticism for a corner bat with the GCL Braves as he hit .303/.352/.407 with 5 triples and a 9/29 BB/K ratio.
He was skipped up to Rome in 2013, and the Braves reportedly had some issues with his conditioning as he hit .257/.308/.349 with 21 doubles and 4 triples along with a 28/97 BB/K ratio over 414 plate appearances in his first year in full season ball.
Meneses was sent back to Rome in 2014 and transitioned to first base. He hit much better in his return to Rome, but he struggled to stay healthy and on the field as he only played 58 games. Meneses hit .283/.354/.495 with 8 home runs and a 22/48 BB/K ratio in 238 plate appearances, flashing power and contact promise that the team could dream on from the right hand side of the plate.
Moved up to high-A Carolina in 2015, the Braves hoped that the 2014 results would continue, but Meneses simply stalled, hitting .239/.298/.327 with a 32/80 BB/K ratio over 433 plate appearances, and it began to look like Meneses may end up as an org bat.
That was until he returned to Carolina to start the 2016 season. He was notably in better shape, looking both stronger and more athletic. With Carolina, he jumped out strong, hitting .400 for a long time and when he was promoted to Mississippi in late June, Meneses was still hitting .342/.401/.490 with 19 doubles and 5 home runs, sporting a 24/38 BB/K ratio over 269 plate appearances. The Braves moved Meneses not just to Mississippi, but also to the outfield again, and he struggled with the combination of moves, hitting .234/.289/.329, but he did finish the season strong, hitting .276/.344/.431 after Dansby Swanson was promoted to the majors, when it seemed the rest of Mississippi’s offense went in the tank. He carried that over into the playoffs, where he hit .440/.500/.560 in Mississippi’s playoff run.
Meneses is listed at 6’3 and 190 pounds. I’d say he’s likely more like 210-215 at this point, but 2 years ago, he was probably more like 215-220, and it looked much different on his frame than it does now. He’s a right-handed hitter and thrower.
Hitting
Meneses stands tall at the plate with a notable leg kick in his stride. He has a long swing path, but he does move the bat through the zone very quickly with very quick wrists. It’s notable that Meneses has added strength to his frame, but he still has very long arms and legs for his frame, and the leg kick seems to help Meneses keep his timing. The M-Braves seemed to try to calm him to a toe tap when he moved up to AA, but he was back to the leg kick at the end of the season, and not coincidentally, he was hitting better again.
With his long swing and long legs, Meneses does struggle to get his hips and wrists in perfect sync to put the ball out. He also has a fairly level swing path for a guy who has such a large frame. I’d almost like to see him take a book out of the Josh Donaldson/Jose Bautista school of hitting and open himself up a bit in his stance to help push his swing up with more lift.
Base Running/Fielding
Meneses is surprisingly adept on the bases for a guy who is seen as a corner guy. Yes, he’s only stolen 9 bases in his minor league career, and that will never be a part of his game as he does take a step or two to get going with his long legs, but once he gets going, he does have more speed than you’d think in his big frame. He took multiple bases frequently on outfield hits that you wouldn’t think that he could.
The move back to the outfield was not seamless this year for sure, but by the end of the season, he was handling right field very well, and he has a plus-plus arm in the position as he was (and is) a pitcher for the Mexican national team. He did not record an assist this season in the outfield, but he showed off a very solid arm multiple times when he threw ahead of a runner to hold a runner on a single to the outfield or held a runner at third base on a shallow fly ball with a perfect throw home that held the runner from tagging up. At first base, he is very adept around the bag, though that does rather waste his excellent arm.
I couldn’t put a good current comp to Meneses’s swing, but I plugged in a play index at Baseball Reference to what I thought an 85% expectation of Meneses’s peak was (.285, 30 doubles, 15 home runs) and looked for guys since 1990 who had done that. In reviewing guys who had similar body types and swings via video, one guy stood out, so I watched more video of him, and it was even more prevalent after watching more, so I went with it.
First, I’ll say that I was among three third basemen on player comps for Meneses, which I found interesting. I eliminated Shea Hillenbrand and Mike Lowell for different reasons, but the guy I ended up choosing was former Brewer and Rockies third baseman Jeff Cirillo. Cirillo was a guy who was 6’2 and roughly 190-205 pounds for his career, and he has the same long arm build that Meneses has. Now, those who are hoping for a power guy in Meneses may not be thrilled in a comp that hit a total of 112 home runs over 14 seasons and averaged 11 home runs per 162 games over his career, but consider that Cirillo hit .296/.366/.430 in his career.
I think it was interesting that two of the guys who showed up on my play index were Bautista and Donaldson, and I really do think Meneses has the type of raw power in his level swing that if he took the dramatic step those guys did in their swings, Meneses could really leap forward in what he does offensively. Remember that Jose Bautista didn’t make his first big splash in his career until the second half of the 2009 season at age 28, and Donaldson played his first full season at age 27 in 2013, so Meneses being 25 next season shouldn’t really terribly worry people.
Meneses is eligible for rule 5 this offseason, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the team handles him. I would wager that they’re going to protect him for at least the AAA portion of the draft, but it will be curious if they add him to the 40-man due to the possibility someone might draft him as a guy to jump to the majors as a bench outfielder (that could even pitch in a pinch!).
If he returns to the Braves system, I’d wager he starts again with Mississippi in the outfield as the team works to get him to the point of being able to move up as a right-handed bat that could be a very nice piece off the bench in the outfield corners and first base at the very least if not a future starter in right field for the Braves.
