{"id":507290,"date":"2026-01-06T02:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/507290\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T02:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:26:16","slug":"washington-nationals-claim-joey-wiemer-off-of-waivers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/507290\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Nationals claim Joey Wiemer off of waivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Paul Toboni has made his first move of 2026. The Nats claimed Joey Wiemer off of waivers from the San Francisco Giants. Wiemer was a former top 100 prospect in the Brewers system, but his unrefined offensive game has led to him struggling to lock down an MLB role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Nats appear to be giving Wiemer a chance. He is a 6\u20194 226 pound outfielder with elite athleticism. However, he has big whiff and plate discipline issues. So far in his career, the 26 year old has played for the Brewers, the Reds and the Marlins. He was picked up by the Giants this offseason, but was later DFA\u2019d. Now he is with the Nats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Wiemer\u2019s best tools are his legs and his glove. Last season, Wiemer <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/joey-wiemer-686894?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">posted<\/a> three outs above average in just 27 games. When he got real playing time back in 2023, Wiemer had a fielding run value of +10. His range combined with an absolute cannon of an arm makes him a weapon in the outfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Wiemer also has big time power. In 499 career plate appearances, Wiemer has 16 homers. His exit velocities are also very good. However, his aggression and strikeouts have made him a liability at the plate. For his career, Wiemer <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/joey-wiemer-686894?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has<\/a> a .203 average with a .638 OPS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Last season, Wiemer was solid in a brief stint with the Marlins. He posted a .715 OPS in 61 PA\u2019s. However, he did<a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/joey-wiemer-686894?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> strike out<\/a> 37.7% of the time and only walked 3.3% of the time. At the plate, you just hope Wiemer can run into one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">However, his splits do intrigue me a bit. Wiemer is much better against left handed pitching. For his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.fcgi?id=wiemejo01&amp;year=Career&amp;t=b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">career<\/a>, Wiemer has a .255 average with a .779 OPS against lefties. Meanwhile, he has a .178 average with a .559 OPS against righties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If Wiemer sticks on the roster, he will probably be a platoon center fielder. Given the volume of outfielders the Nats have, I would not be surprised if he is DFA\u2019d again at some point. The Nats probably hope he would go unclaimed and be a part of their system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With this move, the Nats 40 man roster is full. If\/when the Nats make another move, they are going to have to DFA somebody. To be honest, there are plenty of candidates, including Wiemer himself. Hopefully Joey Wiemer can establish himself as a strong center field defender who can crush lefties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Toboni has made his first move of 2026. The Nats claimed Joey Wiemer off of waivers from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,4,415,414,71,27227,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-507290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-nationals","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-nationals","13":"tag-washington-nationals-news","14":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115845790792127319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}