Jose Tena packs a big punch in a small frame for the Washington Nationals

· Yahoo Sports

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 18: José Tena #8 of the Washington Nationals bats during the game between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on Monday, May 18, 2026 in Washington, District of Columbia. (Photo by Alyssa McDaniel/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images

When you look at Jose Tena, you do not see a huge physical presence. He is a pretty unassuming guy, listed at 5’10 195 pounds. You would guess Tena was a speedy, contact oriented player if you had not seen him play before. However, his defining trait is how hard he hits the baseball and how much force he generates from his small frame.

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This season, Tena has seen a huge spike in his bat speed. It has gone from a below average 70.8 MPH to a well above average 73.5 MPH. After yesterday’s game, I asked Tena how he has improved his bat speed. He told me that he was working on getting stronger, especially in the core area. Tena also said that working with the Nats hitting coaches has helped as well.

The added bat speed has resulted in a ton of hard contact. His average exit velocity is 93.2 MPH this season, which is easily a career high. Over the past couple weeks, he has been absolutely torching balls. In the past 10 days or so, Tena’s average exit velocity is 97.7 MPH. That has him sandwiched between Kyle Schwarber and Drake Baldwin on that leaderboard. 

Seeing Tena next to those two hitters when it comes to exit velocities is pretty crazy when you look at him. We all know that Kyle Schwarber is an absolute unit, with a 5’11 230 pound frame built for power. Drake Baldwin is another powerful athlete, who is listed at 225 pounds. Tena is at least 30 pounds lighter than those guys, but has been packing a similar punch.

The thunder in Tena’s bat is resulting in a ton of extra base hits. Tena is not really a guy who hits a ton of flyballs to the pull side, so most of those extra base hits have been doubles. However, as we saw last night, he has the ability to hit balls out. Tena went to James Wood territory and hit a ball into the left field bullpen off of Nolan McLean.

Nine of Tena’s last 10 hits have gone for extra bases. That sort of impact is why Blake Butera has been giving him a lot of reps at the DH spot and hits him towards the top of the order at times. For the season, Tena has a .748 OPS and 109 wRC+.

There are still areas of Tena’s game that could improve though. He has been striking out a lot this season. His K rate is hovering around 30% for the season, which is a big jump from his 22% K rate in 2025. He is taking big hacks, and there are times where he comes up empty. We saw some frustrating strikeouts from him in the first game of the Mets series.

Tena has some chase in his game and does not walk a ton either. However, he does not chase an egregious amount. His 30% chase rate is pretty close to league average. This profile does mean Tena has to do damage to have success. He has been doing just that this year.

The Nats lead all of baseball in doubles, and Tena plays a role in that. Blasting rockets into the gap is a massive part of Tena’s game. A perfect example of that is the RBI double he hit the other day that drove in Joey Wiemer. It was a 108 MPH liner right into the gap.

Jose Tena is showing that you do not have to be a huge guy to hit the ball hard. If you are strong and have good swing mechanics, you can hit the ball hard. Honestly, Dylan Crews is another example of this and is fairly similar to Tena as a hitter. Seeing Crews at his locker yesterday, I was surprised at how small he was.

When you see guys like Crews and Tena on the field hitting rockets, they appear to be bigger guys than they actually are. Not all power hitters have to look like James Wood or Aaron Judge, and that is pretty cool to see. Every time I see the unassuming Tena hit a 110 MPH rocket into the gap, I am always slightly taken aback even though I have seen it plenty of times now. 

CJ Abrams and James Wood are the engines of this Nats offense, but you need more than two guys to be an elite offense. The contributions of players like Tena, Curtis Mead, and even the recently demoted Joey Wiemer are what pushes this offense from good to great.

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