If it’s possible to earn a major league call-up in less than 400 minor league plate appearances, Wade Meckler has done it. As a minor leaguer, he’s hit .377/.472/.527 since being drafted in the 8th round last year; in 2023, he’s hit .379/.463/.522 between Eugene, Richmond, and Sacramento. Everywhere he’s gone, he’s hit, and if you’ve been watching the Giants over the last month and a half (if not, wow, thank you so much for reading this newsletter, and also what are you doing), you know that they are desperate for anyone who can hit. Hence, Wade Meckler.
So here is Meckler, with the Giants hoping he’s a sparkplug, just like they had hopes for Casey Schmitt and Luis Matos and Patrick Bailey and Marco Luciano. With Schmitt, Matos, and Bailey, it worked out for a while before they came down to Earth; Bailey alone is still in the majors, and with him, it’s more on the strength of his glove than his bat (though his walk-off homer on Sunday was a delightful moment). With Luciano, the call-up was a blatant “Hey, why not?” moment, and the team sent him back to Sacramento within the week.
That’s really been how the Giants have pieced together their lineup for several months now. The veterans are either hurt or underproducing, so why not bring up a rookie? Sure, in the long run, he won’t be very good, but in the short term, he might catch fire and carry the offense for a week, and then the Giants can just coast until he inevitably fades and they have to find another rookie. See? It’s a strategy!
Now, I don’t want to make it seem like the organization doesn’t believe in Meckler, who went 0-for-3 with a walk last night. I think they very much believe it’s possible he’ll succeed in the majors. But they’re not counting on it. They’ve been burned by player after player this year in whom they had put their faith, and so they’ve learned not to have faith in anyone new. That’s not just the aforementioned rookies, but also Brett Wisely and David Villar, Isan Diaz and Joey Bart, AJ Pollock and Mark Mathias and Bryce Johnson.
So now instead of planning and strategizing, the Giants are trying stuff and hoping it works. On the podcast (please rate us five stars on Apple Music, so we can continue living our lavish lives of luxury), I have referred to this as “throwing shit at the walls and seeing what sticks.” Maybe I have also said that here. I don’t know and I’m not going to check. The important thing is, I’m right and that’s absolutely what the team is doing.
To me, that makes all these debuts a little less exciting. Now, this is absolutely not how I expect anyone else to feel, a category which emphatically includes the player and his family, but I’ve hit a point where these debuts aren’t really exciting. They’re just bodies that the team is cycling through, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, and in terms of what role they’re going to play on the team, they’re essentially interchangeable.
In that way, they’re a lot like every Marvel movie. Oh, did the bad guy say he’s going to destroy the world? Just like the last guy said? Yeah, all right, whatever, we’ll be back to the status quo by the next one. Nothing ever changes. At least, not in a way that lasts and matters.
Note to self: investigate possibility of a universe somewhere inside the multiverse inside of which the Giants can actually hit. Possible billion dollar comic book idea???
So Wade Meckler is up, and he’s had a really fun, really good season in the minors, and if he has 15 bad at bats in the majors, that’ll be it for him in the bigs this year. The experience does curdle a little bit with that knowledge. It just has to. Guys take some time to adjust to the league, and if you don’t stick with them, they’ll never reach their potential. You have to commit to a guy, put him in a position to succeed, and play him consistently for weeks on end to see what you have. If you’re going to build a sustainable winner, that’s a vitally important way of player development that I’d like to see the team actively try more.
Or the Giants can just ride the wave of new call-ups forever, hoping it gets them to the playoffs. I think I have a pretty good feeling what they’re going to pick.