Athletics designate Joey Meneses for assignment ahead of Saturday's game vs. Nationals

The Athletics reportedly designated first baseman Joey Meneses for assignment ahead of Saturday night's matchup against the Nationals, per MLB Trade Rumors. The move cleared a 40-man roster spot, which the club used to select right-hander Geoff Hartlieb to the big-league club. Hartlieb takes the place of reliever Justin Sterner, who is currently injured.

What happened

Per MLB Trade Rumors, Meneses appeared in nine games with the Athletics and went 3-for-20 in a limited role before the club moved to designate him. The designation opens a five-day window in which the Athletics can either find a trade partner or place Meneses on waivers.

There is a wrinkle worth noting on the back end of that process. Because Meneses has been outrighted before, per MLB Trade Rumors, he would have the right to reject any outright assignment to the minors and instead elect free agency — a procedural detail that shapes how much leverage both sides carry over the next few days.

Why it matters

The designation closes a brief chapter for Meneses with the Athletics, but the more interesting question may be what comes next for a player whose big-league résumé carries a genuinely unusual arc. Per MLB Trade Rumors, Meneses did not reach the majors until he was 30 years old, breaking in with Washington. What followed was one of the more striking half-season debuts in recent memory: a .324/.367/.563 slash line that earned him the full-time first base job in Washington heading into the following season.

That next season — his lone full campaign as a big leaguer — told a more complicated story. Per the report, the power that had defined his debut dissipated, and he finished as a slightly below-league-average bat. MLB Trade Rumors notes he homered 13 times in that context, though the source trails off before completing the surrounding detail, so the full framing of that figure is not established. The broader picture is of a player whose peak may have arrived in concentrated form during that remarkable half-season with the Nationals.

None of that history changes the arithmetic of the current moment: nine games, 3-for-20, and a roster crunch that made the math straightforward for the Athletics.

Where the club stands

The Nationals — the club where Meneses made his name — enter Saturday at 77-85 (.475), sitting 4th in the NL East and 17 games back in the division. They are eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, per the posterior record, though they carry a one-game winning streak into the weekend series at Sutter Health Park.

The Wild Card picture places Washington at rank 8, 11.0 relative to the cut line — a number that contextualizes just how far outside the postseason conversation the club currently sits. There is something quietly fitting about the fact that the team Meneses put on the map for himself is now the visiting club in the series where his former employer just moved on from him. Baseball does enjoy its small ironies.

Washington's upcoming schedule runs through Sunday at Sutter Health Park — with Foster Griffin projected against Jacob Lopez — before the club heads to Coors Field on Monday, where Andrew Alvarez is listed as the probable against Kyle Freeland. Saturday's game features Zack Littell against J.T. Ginn.

What we don't know yet

That is genuinely uncertain, and MLB Trade Rumors does not speculate on outcomes. What the report does establish is that Meneses carries options beyond simply accepting whatever the Athletics propose: his prior outright history gives him the right to walk into free agency if he chooses, which means any club with interest would likely need to claim him on waivers or work out a trade within the five-day window rather than wait for a quieter outright assignment.

The report does not indicate whether any club has expressed trade interest in Meneses, nor does it specify what role, if any, the Athletics envisioned for him when he joined the organization. The five-day clock is running, but where it lands — trade, waiver claim, outright rejection, free agency — remains open.

For the Athletics, the immediate operational gain is the 40-man spot used to bring Hartlieb up. The club needed bullpen coverage with Sterner unavailable, and Hartlieb fills that gap for Saturday's game against Washington. Whether this is a short-term patch or a longer arrangement depends on Sterner's timeline, which the report does not address.

What to watch

The five-day window is the immediate thing to monitor. If Meneses clears waivers unclaimed, the question becomes whether he exercises his right to reject an outright assignment — and if so, whether he finds a new organization quickly or enters a quieter stretch of free agency. A player with his half-season track record in Washington is not without appeal on paper; the market will answer the rest.

On the Athletics' side, Hartlieb's role in the bullpen and the status of Justin Sterner are the threads worth following. The club made this move to address an immediate need, and how Hartlieb performs in that spot will shape whether the 40-man arithmetic holds up over the coming days.

For Meneses, a player who waited until 30 to get his shot and then delivered one of the more memorable debut half-seasons in recent Washington history, the next few days will clarify whether this is a brief detour or something more final. Per MLB Trade Rumors, the five-day clock is now running.