Ernesto Antonio Mejía Alvarado eh-HEE-ah(born December 2, 1985) is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. Listed at 6' 5", 245 lb., he bats and throws right handed. He has previously played in

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

(NPB) for the

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway ...

Career

Atlanta Braves

Mejía was signed by the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

as a non-drafted free agent on July 8, 2002, and started his minor league career with the GCL Braves rookie team in 2005. In 2006, Mejía played for the rookie ball Danville Braves, slashing .296/.372/.473 with 4 home runs and 25 RBI. He split the 2007 season between Danville and the Single-A Rome Braves, hitting .321/.357/.533 with 9 home runs and 48 RBI between the two teams. He spent the 2008 season in High-A with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, batting .274/.324/.505 with career-highs in home runs (21) and RBI (93). He split the 2009 season between the Double-A

Mississippi Braves The Mississippi Braves, or M-Braves as they were referred to locally, were a Minor League Baseball team based in Pearl, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, from 2005 to 2024. They were the Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves and competed in ...

, the rookie ball GCL Braves, and Myrtle Beach, accumulating a .256/.331/.421 batting line to go along with 4 home runs and 17 RBI. On November 9, 2009, Mejía elected free agency.

Kansas City Royals

On December 11, 2009, Mejía signed a minor league contract with the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...

organization that included an invitation to Spring Training. He did not make the club out of spring and was assigned to the Double-A Northwest Arkansas Naturals. Mejía split the year between the Naturals and the High-A Wilmington Blue Rocks, posting a .276/.337/.469 batting line with 16 home runs and 69 RBI. On November 6, 2010, he elected free agency.

Atlanta Braves (second stint)

On December 13, 2010, Mejía signed a minor league deal to return to the

organization. He spent the 2011 season with Double-A Mississippi, slashing .297/.375/.531 with career-highs in home runs (26) and RBI (99). In 2012, Mejía reached Triple-A for the first time with the Gwinnett Braves, and led the circuit in RBI (92), hits (150) and

total bases In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hit (baseball), hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single (baseball), single, 2 for a double (baseball), double, 3 for a triple (baseball), triple and 4 ...

(256), was second both in SLG (.517) and at-bats (489), and tied for second in

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s (24), ending third in extra-bases (57), fourth in OPS (.858), fifth in runs (72) and eight in

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(.298), while tying for sixth in both doubles (32) and

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

(126). Mejía earned the International League Rookie of the Year distinction as well as the Postseason All-Star team. The All-Star nod is his sixth All-Star selection. He also became the third consecutive Gwinnett Braves player to claim the award for the league's top rookie, joining Freddie Freeman (2010) and

Julio Teherán Julio Alberto Teherán Pinto (born January 27, 1991) is a Colombian professional baseball pitcher for the Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican League. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angel ...

(2011). On November 2, 2012, Mejía was selected to the Braves' 40-man roster. He spent the entire 2013 season in Gwinnett, posting a batting line of .249/.323/.497 to go along with 28 home runs and 83 RBI. He was named an International League All-Star for the 2013 season. Mejía began the 2014 season with Gwinnett, but was released on April 26, 2014, after reaching an agreement to play with a team in

Saitama Seibu Lions

After his release from the Braves, Mejía signed with the

. Mejía led NPB's

Pacific League The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...

with 34 home runs in 2014, finishing in a tie for the top spot with Takeya Nakamura. In his first three seasons with the Lions through 2016, Mejia batted .257 overall with 96 home runs and 265 RBIs. In 2017, Mejía slashed .241/.320/.458 with 19 home runs and 53 RBI in 113 games. He played in 82 games in 2018, batting .212/.282/.373 with 9 home runs and 21 RBI. In 2019, he hit .207/.273/.409 with 6 home runs and 31 RBI. On November 18, 2019, Mejía signed a 1-year contract extension to remain with the Lions. In 2020, he batted .207/.273/.409 with 11 home runs and 33 RBI in 74 games. Mejía played in 16 games for the team in 2021, collecting 8 hits in 36 at-bats (.143) with 1 home run and 3 RBI. On July 26, 2021, Mejía requested his release from the team so he could spend more time with his family.

References

External links

Career statistics - NPB.jp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mejia, Ernesto 1985 births Living people Águilas del Zulia players Baseball first basemen Danville Braves players Gulf Coast Braves players Gwinnett Braves players Mississippi Braves players Myrtle Beach Pelicans players Navegantes del Magallanes players Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Northwest Arkansas Naturals players People from Guanare Rome Braves players Saitama Seibu Lions players Wilmington Blue Rocks players Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Japan Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States