Joey Meneses wins PCL Player of the Week after dominant stretch

Joey Meneses turned Las Vegas’ closing series against Round Rock into a showcase for middle-order damage, then got rewarded with Pacific Coast League Player of the Week honors and a quick return to the Athletics. The question now is not whether the bat was hot for seven days, but whether a veteran stretch like this looks more like a correction than a spike.

Las Vegas announced the award on June 22 after Meneses ripped through five games from June 15-21, hitting .550 with 11 hits in 20 at-bats. He added two doubles, a triple, two home runs, 11 RBI and 10 runs scored, while producing four multi-hit games in the span. Against the Round Rock Express, the numbers came in waves: a 3-for-5 night with a triple and two RBI on June 16, a 2-for-4 game with a homer and three RBI on June 17, a 4-for-5 burst on June 19 that included two doubles, a homer and four RBI, and another 2-for-5 effort with an RBI on June 20.

The timing mattered because Meneses was promoted to the Athletics on Sunday, June 21, just as the Aviators were closing out the first half as Pacific Coast League champions. Las Vegas had already secured home-field advantage for the league’s championship series, and Meneses was central to the lineup production that helped get the club there. He was also the third Aviators player to win PCL Player of the Week in 2026, joining Henry Bolte, who was honored for May 4-10, and Cade Marlowe, who won for May 18-24.

This was not a one-week outlier. Through 69 games with Las Vegas, Meneses was hitting .348 with 98 hits, 20 doubles, a triple, 11 home runs and 76 RBI, numbers that left him among the Triple-A leaders in batting average, RBI and total hits. He also led the Aviators with 32 multi-hit games, a volume stat that underscored how often he was driving innings rather than merely padding box scores.

Meneses, 34, is a right-handed first baseman and designated hitter from Culiacán, Mexico, with a long pro résumé that includes stops in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, the Mets and Athletics organizations, plus a season in Japan. His major league resume already includes 286 games, 306 hits, 29 home runs and 166 RBI, and he showed the big-league club something immediate on June 21 by lining an RBI single on the first pitch he saw. For Las Vegas, the award capped a dominant stretch; for the Athletics, it served as a reminder that Meneses’ bat still plays when the stakes rise.