The Giants call up Wade Meckler, capping off the potential meteoric rise appeared in the original Bay Area Sports NBC
SAN FRANCISCO — Wade Meckler’s meteoric rise through the Giants’ minor league system ushered him into the big leagues just 13 months after being drafted.
On Monday, the Giants announced the recall of Meckler and veteran utility man Johan Camargo, dramatically mixing things up on a list that included the worst offense in the league over the past six weeks.
On opposing moves, the Giants sent Luis Matos and Mark Matias to Triple-A, while Anthony DeSclafani was transferred to the IL 60 and Luis Gonzalez was assigned to a 40-man roster.
The addition of Camargo wasn’t particularly surprising, as the veteran player would take over as a backup on the field. But Meckler arrived shortly after being drafted in the eighth round of last year’s draft. It’s not hard to see how he did it.
The 23-year-old hit .439 at Low-A after the draft last year and then batted . 456 in 20 games at High-A earlier this year, earning a quick promotion. In a Double-A league considered hard hitters, he hit . 336 with a 0.81 OPS and strikeout-to-walk ratio of approx. Meckler was promoted to Triple-A, and once again made quick work of leveling up.
In 10 games for the River Cats, Meckler had a .400/.546/.600 slash with eight walks and five strikeouts. Overall, he has a .377 average, .472 on-base percentage and .999 OPS in 92 minor league games.
“We talk a lot when we talk about guys with good discipline about whether you can have a look at baseball,” Farhan Zaidi, president of baseball operations, said on “Giants Talk” earlier this month. “I think he saw baseball very early on and could commit to swinging on or off early. Even at this level (at Triple-A), you can see when somebody’s doing it in a really special way. It reminded me a little bit of LaMonte (Wade). Jr.) and how he did it, and obviously Brandon Belt was the same way when he was here.
“That’s just a carry skill when you can do that. If you combine it with Wade’s bat-to-ball skills, you have the chance to be a really great offensive pack and a really productive offensive pack here, and it could be pretty awesome soon.”
Related: Why al-Zaidi thinks Meckler could be special
Meckler ended up beating expectations Again, this is nothing new for a player who was his high school junior as a freshman and was cut twice from the team at Oregon State. He’s kept grinding, and while he probably won’t hit with much power at the big-league level or steal many bases, he fits perfectly into the hitting organization’s philosophy. This is something Meckler learned on his first day as a giant, when he listened to a member of the organization give a speech about how important whiteboard discipline is.
“I was like, ‘Sweet, that’s how I’ve been thinking about hitting for the last three years,’” Meckler said during an interview last month while at Double-A. “She fit in great.”
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