The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve traded infielder/outfielder Tyler Wade to the Angels in exchange for cash or a player to be named later. Wade was designated for assignment Friday amid a series of moves as the Yankees set their roster in advance of the Rule 5 protection deadline. The Angels announced that they have designated utilityman Kean Wong for assignment in a corresponding move.
Wade, 27 tomorrow, has spent parts of the past five seasons on the Yankees’ bench, serving as an oft-used utility option while being frequently shuttled between the big leagues and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Last year’s 145 plate appearances were a career-high (though they were spread across 103 games), and Wade’s .268/.354/.323 slash during that small sample was the most productive of MLB stretch of his career. In all, he’s a .212/.298/.307 hitter in 491 plate appearances for the Yankees.
Of course, Wade was always more of a defensive option than a player expected to make meaningful contributions with the bat. During his half-decade run with the Yankees, he saw time at every position other than first base, catcher and pitcher. The bulk of that workload came at second base (546 innings) and shortstop (331 innings), but Wade has 33 appearances at the hot corner and 57 in the outfield.
Wong, the younger brother of Brewers second baseman Kolten Wong, was a fourth-round pick by the Rays back in 2013 but has yet to find his footing in the big leagues. The 26-year-old has seen MLB times both with Tampa Bay and the Halos but managed only a .167/.188/.218 output in an admittedly small sample of 84 plate appearances. The younger Wong is a career .293/.355/.421 hitter in more than 1600 Triple-A plate appearances, however, and he also still has a pair of minor league option years remaining.
Another club in need of some infield depth could conceivably take a chance on Wong, who’ll either be traded, placed on outright waivers or released in the next seven days. Even if Wong goes unclaimed on waivers and is outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake, he’ll have the opportunity to reject that assignment and become a free agent, given that it would be the second time in his career that he’s been outrighted.
Disappointing. I thought Wade was a good bench piece.
Good luck!!! Always a gamer
This I just don’t get. Good bench guy athletic fast can play infield and outfield. Cost is negligible.
40 man roster spot. The rule creates some facially illogical moves
As others seem to have to repeat he was out of options and was taking a spot on the 40 man roster. By DFAing him they were able to protect a prospect with more potential upside.
It’s not like he didn’t have a purpose. But the prospect was deemed to have more value. They can always find a no hit, good defense speedy bench player if necessary but with Gio, Torres and DJ they have infielders now who play multiple positions.
That ought to satisfy Ohtani.
Wade is a spunky player with low upside but is versatile and has some speed. He needs to work on his base stealing badly However. I think you LA fans will like him though
Impossible. He was one of the big WFAN 3 who the Yankees were going to trade for a superstar. Fraizer and Andujar for Trout up next!
He plays everywhere. Joe Maddon loves these types of players. Nice last man on the roster.
Wow – Thor and Wade…they’ll be unstoppable now. 😉
Thor hurt his arm scrolling through the comment section.
Both of these players make the team better– and that’s all you can try to do in each deal is get better. What if they add Stroman and Alex Wood? Do Stroman, Wood and Syndergaard make them better? And with Wade if they added Joc Pederson to be the the 4th outfielder– are they better? See how that works smart guy?
I like watching Tyler Wade play baseball.
nice to see the Angels focusing on what they really need…which is bats…
Every team could use a utility guy and the Angels need one for next Season
I thought Brewer fans were smarter than that
We have like 10 of them already
We’re bringing in a new shiny one, that’s all. Every year we bring in a bunch too. Last year it was Mayfield and Wong and Gosselin and Cecchini and Brendon Davis (who we recently added to the 40 man?) and I’m sure a few more
We are obsessed with these types
No we don’t. We have ten guys who couldn’t cut it. Ten guys who were well South of adequate at more than half the positions. In most cases, most if not all of the positions.
Wade may not cut it either, I don’t know. What I do know is that the players we have we’re incapable of giving Maddon what he wants.
The Yankees just cut Wade. We just cut a Wade who we tried that didn’t work as we hoped. Now we’ll try the one the Yankees cut in hopes he works slightly better than the huge stockpile of these guys we have
We are obsessed with these IF/OF types and grab them up anytime we can get our hands on one. I don’t get why you don’t see that
Right now, as it stands after this move, a full 20% of our 40 man is devoted to IF/IF guys. 1 in 5 players we are carrying
Maybe that’s true. Maybe he can’t cut it. But please don’t tell me we have players who fit the bill…we don’t. Not even close.
Maddon is looking for a specific player and every in house option has not come close to fitting the bill.
I said every year we grab up a bunch of these types. Every year we roster multiple of them, and we always have even more we’ve grabbed in the minors
We’ve gone through dozens and dozens of these players. Adding them never results in more open roster spots, it just means we have more and more of these replaceable parts rostered
Maddon is looking for “the guy”. He’s not going to stop looking.
Everyone else he’s tried has been woefully inadequate.
Having a guy like that is a good idea. Finding a guy like that is very hard.
If you are saying Wade can’t do it, I’m not arguing with you? I wouldn’t know the guy from Adam.
If you are saying we already have such a guy… we don’t. And that is not remotely debatable.
I’m pretty sure Maddon is going to keep looking for a guy like that until he finds him.
We’ve been “looking for the guy” way longer than Maddon has been here. This obsession didn’t start in 2020. Shoot, Wong himself predates Maddon
And I’m saying we currently have 8 of them on the 40 man roster, and even more in the minors. We have IF/OF guys coming out of our ears. We used more than a dozen of them between the top 2 clubs in 2021 …and the year prior …and the year prior …and so on
Yes, I’m sure Maddon will continue to carry at least 6-8 of these types on the roster. Yes, I’m sure even more will be in AAA, and even in AA. That is how the team has operated for years
We are not clearing up any roster spot, as you first stated, and I replied to. We are just cycling through yet another in an endless line of these types we have tried, as I’ve shown. We’re trying someone else’s new garbage in one of the spots recently held by our old garbage, but the 40 man spots are just as filled with such types as they were 2 days ago when Wong was still on it. We had 8 of them 2 days ago, we have 8 of them now
We currently have no one close that can do the job. You came up with a few and not one of them comes close to being adequate. You can keep writing that we have 8, but that doesn’t make it true. We have zero.
Maybe Wade isn’t the answer, but not one of the players you list is either.
The Angels can cut all 8 and will win just as many with them as without them. They may win a game or two but are more likely to lose a game than win a game.
The Angels are looking for a player that wins more games than they lose. Not one of those 8 fit the bill.
Always need to add depth. They are in need at depth in the infield and a 4th outfielder, and a backup catcher. They’re in on everybody from Scherzer to Stroman, but they need other pieces to the puzzle as well.
Literally all we have is “depth”
Really, this is every pure-hitter on the 40 man roster
C
– Stassi
IF
– Rendon (3B)
OF
– Trout
– Upton
– Adell
– Marsh
IF/OF guys
– Walsh (our current 1B)
– Fletcher (our current 2B?)
– Thaiss
– Ward
– Wade
– Davis
– Gosselin
– Mayfield
– Rengifo
– Rojas
– Velazquez
That is it, that is our 17 hitters. 11 are IF/OF types, with 9 of them making up our bench options. 53% of our 17 hitters are nothing more than IF/OF bench options
Most teams protect prospects from the RuleV draft, we use the 40 man spots to protect IF/OF guys
“Most teams protect prospects from the RuleV draft, we use the 40 man spots to protect IF/OF guys.”
The Angels are protecting the Rule V draft from being populated with non-prospects.
Mayfield or the Goose are gone and there is no need for a 5th outfielder.
I’d keep Goose and platoon him with Walsh at first. Walsh can’t hit lefties, Goose can. He can also give Rendon a couple of days off here and there early in season.
I think Upton is going to get ABs at first. Just a hunch.
Interesting. I think Upton is DFA’d very early in the season.
We shall see.
Not a chance. The Angels need a 4th outfielder.
We can only hope. Don’t we have that guy we acquired from the As coming off the IL for our outfield depth? I forget his name.
I’m not sure the Goose is gone, but mayfield is for sure.
I think one of them is gone.
Just don’t expect him to hit much and you will be pleased with him
I’ll miss his speed and versatility but I won’t miss his weak bat and occasionally dumb baserunning. He was a nice bench piece for sure but he was certainly expendable. As long as we get a quality shortstop and keep a solid infield I’m not going squawk about this move at all.
Agreed completely
He is a gamer, good defense and his speed makes things happen…exactly what the Yankees are missing. I understand why they did it and wish him well.
Trading him for possible cash considerations is almost laughable.
Maybe now the New York Yankees can afford Simmons at short.
Cash must be getting tight in the Steinbrenner household. Oh well I guess now they won’t have to raise beer prices to keep the lights on. Thoughts and prayers for Hal.
Of course he would be traded for cash. No one is going to give up a desirable player for him after all. Unless the Yankees wanted one of our interchangeable filler parts as well, cash is the only option
Trading non essential bench players for cash considerations or a ptbnl is a common thing in baseball. You would know that if you weren’t focused on taking a cheap dig at the Yankees
Just a question now of whose cap Wade wears when enshrined at the HOF.
Devil Rays of course
Haven’t we already had 30 of this guy in the system the last few years?
Revolving door continues
Show me a team that first have a revolving door at the bottom of their 25 and 40 man rosters. You try to catch lightning in a bottle. Dude does have a history of a high OBP in the minors and last year it did transfer to the bigs. He is young, a local kid and was a HS 4th round pick so someone did see something.
He’s approaching 30 and while he did show improvement last season it was only in 150 or so plate appearances. I’m rooting for the guy though
Like clockwork, fans start fondly reminiscing about a player they complained about for 5 years the moment he’s gone.
Comments mostly from Yankee fans doing so. Not to many Angel fans cheering here lol
From Murrietta. Cool. Local kid.
Cost controlled depth piece with some upside? Perfect. Nice job, Perry.
I like this move for the Angels eliminate carrying an extra outfielder or Infielder Who can play multiple positions in the infield and play outfield and has speed
Which one?
Thaiss?
Ward?
Rengifo?
Brendon Davis?
Mayfield?
Gosselin?
Rojas?
Even after releasing Wong (who himself was one,) we still have 7 more IF/OF players on the 40 man
Again… they stunk.
So does Wade, thats why the Yankees were cutting him
But even though you think they stunk, they are all currently on the 40 man roster. Counting Wade, they make up 8 of the 40, or 20% of our our player pool
None of the guys you listed are any good– that’s the problem.
1. Thaiss .143 each of the last 2 season and just okay in the minors
2. Regnifo has hit .216 in three season and .201 last year.
3. Ward .250 and below average in the field
4. Brendon Davis had a nice year in the minors after being bad the rest of his min or league career– he’s not ready for the bigs– no way.
5. Mayfield was another .200 hitter who won’t be back
6. Gosselin played a nice role and did a good job.
7. Rojas was another .200 hitter who had a few good games.
How is this pick up not an improvement over this group, and a cheap option for versatility and speed?
Wade is not good either
Wade – 66 OPS+, 27 year old
Davis – ??? OPS+, 25 yo
Rengifo – 67 OPS+, 25 yo
Thaiss – 80 OPS+, 27 yo
Velazquez – 43 OPS+, 27 yo
Ward – 88 OPS+, 28 yo
Rojas – 90 OPS+, 29 yo
Mayfield – 60 OPS+, 30 yo
Gosselin – 80 OPS+, 33 yo
Only Velazquez and Mayfield have hit worse than Wade over their careers
But apparently all we really, really needed was a 9th no-hit IF/OF to throw on the pile …yay?
Remember Rengifo is facing some pretty serious fraud charges back home. There’s a solid shot he’s not available next year.
That wouldn’t bother me a bit. He’s not very good and another one of these guys who loses more games than they win.
Was Wade’s increase in production last year due to a mechanical change, playing time change, or just a guy getting hot for a a bit?
I like the move for the same reason as 11. Now if that 2021 performance is somewhat repeatable, I like it even more.
Offense is a bonus. Can he play each of those positions adequately?
The Angels have tried to find that player, but each time that player was horrible at multiple positions. They were outfielders and/or infielders in name only. They were unplayable at several positions.
Is he adequate at seven positions? That’s the player Maddon is looking for. So far he’s come up empty.
Tyler Wade is your guy then. Average to above average at several positions although. Doesn’t have the best accuracy on his throws from SS but can do the job occasionally. But solid at 2b, OF, and 3b
He’s not above average at any position.
When you have that few at-bats then one hot streak will produce good overall numbers. I think he should have gotten the playing time after Torres hit the IL but it seems like Boone had already decided he wasn’t suitable for everyday play.
Wade was a solid bench player but he can be replaced pretty easily. I could see Oswaldo Cabrera assuming Wade’s role next year
The model bench player is someone like Leury Garcia who can play average to above average 2B-SS-3B and corner OF positions and also have above average speed for extra inning games. A player like that might be available late in the FA season after the cream of the crop have signed and be much more fiscally affordable.
Your model player that “fiscally affordable” you mentioned makes 6x what tyler wade is being paid. I am not sure but i dont think he is providing 6x the production of wade. Am I saying wade is great? No but if you are going to bring dollars and value into it please look into it beforehand. Also Wade had a solid year when given regular role and not up and down (reminds me a bit of Justin Turner for the dodgers when he was with the mets)
Also the only ones i recognize that fall into that super utility role usually are making about 10x what Wade is making currently even late in free agency. Marwin Gonzalez first bout into FA after doing well for Houston got a 10M/yr deal 20x wade’s cost.
For minimum cost at the end of the bench depth Wade is a pretty good piece to have especially on pre-arb dollars when he is on an upswing. Oh and btw Wade had 3 times more steals than garcia in about 1/3 less atbats so wade would be better on the base paths later in extra inning games is my guess too.
Still not understanding why Wong stole at bats from Rengifo and Rojas when we were only going to cut him to begin with
Angels collecting former Yankees utility players. First Velasquez then Wade, and lastly Torreyes next. A nice battle in Spring Training for final bench spot.
He stole at bats because the team did not believe in Rojas or Regnifo and they still don’t.
please dont steal 5 bases in 3 games against us next year.
Possible Fletcher/Wade/Velazquez timeshare in the Angels middle Infield this season?
So is Wade our answer to fill the SS hole?
Nice little pick up for the angels. Wade is a solid player and a good depth piece in my opinion. Spots starts, fill in at a solid lvl for injuries. Can’t complain about this move… unless it’s the only move
Any trade with LA Anaheim is for Trout,International money,or cash. No one needs that driftwood.
Not going to miss him playing below replacement level defensive at 6 positions… which is 1 more than the amount of RBI he had last year… great base speed, but poor baserunner and not a good base stealer. Waits too long in the count before he goes and by then batter if fouling off pitches. Doesn’t look to see what happens with the pitch. Decent for pinchrunning but an automatic out if he has to bat again later on that game.
But can he pitch?
Letting Tyler Wade go and keeping Gittens and Andujar; what the hell is Cashman doing? Does he have a plan – here we are Nov 24th and nothing yet
Nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, good bye to the worst Yankee of all time, TF Wade. Worthless in every aspect of the game much like Ramiro Pena was. THANK YOU to the Angels for taking on this slug but you have my sympathies. Because who doesn’t want a piss poor hitter and fielder? I am SO glad this dude is history and will be even more thrilled when he is out of baseball all together and bagging groceries in some Safeway Supermarket. And trust me, Tyler a’int no Kurt Warner.