Joey Wiemer, a 27-year-old right fielder on the Nationals, kicked off his season by tying the MLB record for the most consecutive plate appearances reaching base to start a season with Carlos Delgado, who set the previous record in 2002.
Wiemer started the season by reaching base on ten consecutive at-bats. In the first game of the season against the Chicago Cubs, he had a home run, two singles and a walk in his four at-bats.
In the second game of the season, also against the Chicago Cubs, he had a home run, two singles and a walk in four at-bats. In the third game of the season, against the Philadelphia Phillies, he tied the record with two singles. He didn’t get out until his third at-bat of the game when he grounded out. Notably, the Nationals won all three of these games.
He averaged over 100 miles per hour exit velocity and a hard hit percentage of 83.3 through March 30. To put this into context, last season, MLB leaders in these statistics averaged an exit velocity of 95.8 miles per hour and a hard-hit percentage of 59.6.
Wiemer grew up in Sylvania, a small town in Ohio. He graduated from Bedford High School in 2017, where he was a star athlete in football, basketball and baseball. He then went on to the University of Cincinnati, where he played division 1 baseball.
Wiemer was drafted by the Brewers in the fourth round in 2020. By 2023, Wiemer became a top 100 prospect. He had excellent sprinting ability, especially considering his height of 6’4” and weight of 225 pounds, an extremely talented arm, and quality fielding capacity. His biggest weakness was hitting.
Prior to this season, Wiemer had a batting average of .205 in nearly 500 at bats. Since 2024, Wiemer has been on six teams. After the Brewers, he joined the Cincinnati Reds, where he played 2 games with them. After 33 at-bats with the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Wiemer had a batting average of .364, showing significant improvement. This led to a call-up to the Marlins.
After being traded to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for cash considerations in 2025, Wiemer was soon designated for assignment before signing with the Nationals in January.