Atlanta Braves Scouting Report 1B/OF Joey Meneses
Scouting Report
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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.
Video
Next: Future outlook