The Angels and Giants swung a trade this evening, as San Francisco sent first baseman and outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. to Anaheim in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. The Giants are sending cash to Anaheim as part of the deal alongside Wade. The Angels designated right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks for assignment to make room for Wade on the 40-man roster.
Wade, 31, was designated for assignment by San Francisco last week. A ninth-round pick by Minnesota back in 2015, he appeared in 42 games for the Twins across the 2019 and 2020 seasons before being dealt to the Giants prior to the 2021 campaign. Wade immediately became a fixture of the Giants lineup, slashing .253/.326/.482 in 109 games for San Francisco in his first year with the club. Injuries limited him to just 77 games in 2022, but he bounced back in 2023 and ’24 to slash a combined .258/.376/.401 (120 wRC+) in 252 games for the Giants where he primarily played first base but also got occasional looks in the outfield corners and at DH.
In his final year ahead of free agency, Wade seemed likely to once again serve as a solid left-handed bat for the Giants who could be trusted to hold things down at first base while the club waited for the arrival of top prospect Bryce Eldridge. Unfortunately, that’s not how things played out. Wade failed to hit much at all in 50 games for the Giants this season, posting a putrid .167/.275/.271 slash line (59 wRC+). At least some of those struggles can be attributed to poor fortune on batted balls, as Wade’s .211 BABIP is down nearly 90 points relatively to what it had been during his previous four seasons with the Giants. With that being said, Wade was hitting for less power than ever before in his career, and even his .287 xwOBA was well below average. With San Francisco in the thick of the Wild Card race this year, they couldn’t justify continuing to wait around for Wade to get right and pulled the plug on him last week in order to bring veteran first baseman Dominic Smith into the fold.
For the Angels, the addition of Wade is an interesting one. The club already has a left-handed first baseman entrenched in an everyday job with Nolan Schanuel, who has done quite well for himself with a 119 wRC+ in his age-23 season so far. Notably, Anaheim’s announcement of the move referred to Wade as an outfielder, hinting that he might primarily find use in the corner outfield mix for the Halos going forward. That would be a sensible use for the veteran, given that the club’s current outfield group of Jorge Soler, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, and Mike Trout hit exclusively from the right side. Wade could serve as a lefty complement to Ward in left field and Soler at DH once Trout resumes playing right field on a regular basis. In the short term, Wade can also provide the Angels with some additional coverage in the outfield in the event that Soler needs to head to the injured list due to a nagging groin issue he’s been struggling with in recent days.
Wade has always been best suited for a platoon role, as he’s a career .193/.288/.250 hitter against fellow lefties and has not collected a hit against a left-handed pitcher this year. Even the club’s depth and bench outfield options like Chris Taylor, Matthew Lugo, and Scott Kingery bat right-handed, which should give Wade a niche on the club’s roster. That should be a fairly safe environment for Wade to try and bounce back, as he can be more or less completely platoon protected. It remains to be seen if Wade can resume generating enough power to get his production anywhere close to the 115 wRC+ he posted with the Giants from 2021-24, but one encouraging sign is that his strikeout (20.9%) and walk (12.7%) rates from that timeframe are almost identical to his 20.7% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate this year.
That suggests that his skills haven’t regressed at least from a discipline perspective, and even if his power doesn’t bounce back it’s not impossible to imagine Wade being a roughly league average bat against righties going forward. That’s enough to make him a useful bench piece for a team with a heavily right-handed lineup like Anaheim, and they clearly though bringing him into the fold was worth absorbing at least a portion of $5MM salary Wade is making this year. It’s not yet clear exactly how much cash the Giants sent to Anaheim to offset that financial blow, but shedding even a portion of the first baseman’s salary is a win for San Francisco given that Wade would’ve been able to elect free agency and leave them on the hook for the full deal had he cleared waivers.
Departing the Angels’ roster to make room for Wade is Darrell-Hicks. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with Anaheim earlier this year and made six appearances, where he surrendered eight runs on ten hits while walking four and striking out six in 7 2/3 innings of work. That lackluster performance is fairly representative of his work at Triple-A Salt Lake this year as well, where he has an 8.87 ERA in 22 1/3 frames. That said, he’s just one season removed from posting a dominant season split between Double- and Triple-A, with a 2.60 ERA in 62 1/3 innings of work across 40 appearances. The Angels will have one week to either work out a trade involving Darrell-Hicks or else place him on waivers. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, Anaheim will have the option to outright him to the minor leagues as non-roster depth for the remainder of the year.
I assume the Angels are covering his salary. Nice move Buster!
He’s making 5 million. Certainly worth a shot he was a good player the last couple years.
Zero chance of that. Giants Definitely have to pay his salary
He’s not making that much. If the Angels can take on Solers stupid contract coming off the year he had they sure as heck can pay the roughly 3 million Wade is owed. Its not a big deal.
Why u get so butt hurt over any criticism over Lamonte clown he’s never had a great season and he’s had one meh season he’s mediocre another bum they pick up
the giants sent cash along the side to get cash or PTBNL.
The Angels are paying bo more than $1 million for Wade’s services.
Wil, not sure what you are crowing about. Wade is owed about $2.5 million for the balance of the season. A pittance by MLB standards. The last 2 seasons he has had a 120 OPS+, put up a 5 WAR yotal which is above league average, and was one of the better hitters overall. The Angels basically gave up nothing to get him. Even if he hits just MLB average, this is a win for the Angels who just had Moncada and Soler hit the IL. With Trout staying at DH at least for the immediate future, Wade steps in to fill the void Soler left in the OF.
Gonna split DH duties with Soler?
Oh good lord you DO NOT want him dh’ing
Career OPS of 742. You can do a lot worse.
Thatwas like one year wtf u blabbering about
Semuy: And why is that?
Because he is clearly nearing the end of his career and can’t hit water if he falls out of a boat
hopefully a change of scenery will help him, he hasn’t been bad in the past but for whatever reason this year he is still walking and has a great eye but hasn’t been able to catch up with anything that is in the zone. maybe a new staff working with him will change that
Maybe going back to his old approach and stance at the plate will help. Matt Swope had him change nearly everything he did in the past in an effort to increase power. In 2025 his stance is lower and wider, his hands are being held lower, and he is now gripping the bat on the knob.
Obviously the changes didn’t work. Instead of allowing him to go back to what he used to do that was effective, the Giants DFA’d him.
A win for the Angels.
I think this and the Ben Gamel move say that Soler is going to the IL and that Trout is not close to returning to the OF.
Soler only PH yesterday and appears to be headed to the IL. Moncada is already there. Trout is not ready to play in the OF and may be the regular DH for a while.
Wade is an immediate fill in for Soler and is better on defense in the OF. . He may also see some time at DH as Trout eases back into playing the OF. I really doubt that we will see Trout full time in the OF again this season.
Newman? Are the Angels going to stop playing Rengifo? Who was a borderline All-Star for a full Calandar year, and replacement level for the rest.
Somehow I think Rengifo will get hot mid summer to end the season. He may get traded before that in my opinion
Angels should’ve traded rengifo to the Yankees when he still had value last July
@Halo. This is Rengifo’s last year before becoming a free agent. I am sure they would like to move Rengifo at the trade deadline and ride out the rest of the season with Wade.
I don’t think they can get anything for him anymore.
MDH is nasty someone will be happy to pick him up
I dunno, he hasn’t been good this season. Maybr he needs more work..
homer-prone in Salt Lake with good BB/K numbers, a + sweeper and 96 ish fastball… 3 option years including this one. he gone
He has upside. He’s gone.
Might as well sign Lamont Sanford…
maybe I will, ya big dummy!
And drive him to the Big A in that old pickup truck.
Great comment.
Epic theme song.
Damn – I was just gonna post this place needs a good Sanford & Son quip!
Nice ! Good work Angels.
Go well, LaMonte.
Busters moves had a nice effect.
7 x 1 run games in a row has taken some years off me, but all is well with the world again.
Late Night Lamonte!!!
More like Late Night Lament, so far this year.
So, who decides the PTBNL? Is it completely up to the team he’s coming from? Does the receiving team have the ability to say “What? No, we don’t want HIM”? Is it someone already decided on by the two clubs and just not named until later for contract reasons? I never quite understood how that works
They usually provide a short list of players from which to choose.
Thank you!
Good question. Maybe one for the chats.
Team giving the PTBNL sends a list, team receiving chooses one of said options
Thank you! Do they choose at the time of the trade? Or do they choose later? Is the timeframe the same every time?
my understanding is that it happens later, if the guy performs better they get a better list and if worse they may get cash or a lower level guy
Semut, there have been four times in major league history where a player ended up being traded for himself. The first time was in 1962 when Cleveland traded Harry Chiti to the Mets for a player to be named later. The trade was completed when Chiti himself was named as the player to be named later. Same thing happened with Dickie Thon, Brad Gulden, and John McDonald.
Now THAT is a cool piece of trivia!
Sometimes it’s a list of players, but not always. Sometimes it’s an agreed upon player, but he’s not named because there’s some roster issue that need to be resolved first.
Fare thee well, Late Night LaMonte
“in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. The Giants are sending cash to Anaheim as part of the deal”
wait
I was thinking the same thing. Ha. Maybe they had to pay some of the salary down, and just choosing a player later. Crazy
To make room on the roster, The Angels immediately designated Cash Considerations for assignment
But they still owe the deferred portion of the contract.
Only because Norm Cash and Don Money weren’t available.
Is the first of many Minasian brother trades?
I still can’t believe Perry has a job
Zack doesn’t really have any power the giants are run by buster
LMAO. You think Perry has power with the Angels?
Ain’t no washed veterans getting past the Angels. Such a weird org
@russell branyan. Its either between the angels or the braves.
YOU. GUYS. ARE. SPOT. ON!!!!
I could see him coming off of the bench in key situations against a key matchup as a pinch hitter. Only time will tell if he will get back to his potential.
I like that he works counts.
Anthony Rendon is the former player to be named..
I hope its Rengifo, please. PTBNL
Bad idea He’s not much of a player, but his OPS over the past three seasons is 109 and plays multiple positions. I’d let him play and hope he recovers some of hitting skills. Then trade him for a lottery ticket.
Who????
LaMonte Wade Jr. Good unassuming dude. He is not a high priced superstar. You wouldn’t know him.
DD has never heard of Kodai Senga either.
Nice to nab Lamont. But they could get Aunt Esther, still won’t get them out of 4th
Aren’t they in 3rd place just 2 games behind the Mariners?
Yeah but the angels always collapse past July
2023 is a prime example
So do the Mariners! So you’re saying they have a shot!
Angels just warming up now
Have lots of talent. Improved team timing is the key. Haven’t done that much yet, and still in the race. Buyers, that’s a no brainer.
You can hope, but think about this. Major league rankings.
Batters 30th Strikeout Pct.. 29th BB%.
Pitchers. 29th Strikeout Pct. 30th BB%.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Everyone from top to bottom need to go.
I knew the hitters were bad, but I didn’t realize that about the pitchers. Paris is down, so that’s a big plus. I can’t believe how badly Neto has regressed. 57/8 is not MLB-worthy, and I like the guy.
And some of the bench players they had were horrific. Anderson, Lugo, Newman and Taylor have combined for a 66/5 K/W.
Batting coach?
It’s the entire philosophy of the organization. The swing at anything close philosophy doesn’t work beyond Pony League and the Angels preach it.
That was the final straw for me. I was close before that, but that really put me over the top,
This team needs to clean house and that won’t happen until Arte sells the team. I still think it could happen if Arte sailed around the world, but he’ll never be hands off.
Good run with the Giants. Needed a change of scenery. Hope he finds his swing again – good dude. Could be a solid pickup for Angels.
He was a good Giant. Hard to watch him struggle as much as he has. I hope he’s able to turn it around.
Lamont and schanuel are two very disciplined hitters. If Lamonte can get warm, that could be a solid two guys who can work a count.
Can definitely see this guy turn things around. Solid pickup for the Angels.
The brothers made a deal!
After a miserable April, Wade had a…less awful May. We’ll see if he can continue to revert back to the mean. Chris Taylor has certainly improved after shaking off some rust. we’ll see.
Career .245/.352/.418 is serviceable, though, for a part time OF/DH/PH.
Lugo or Kingery going back to Salt Lake.
It’ll be Lugo. They still need Kingery for IF depth until Moncada returns.
I don’t know enough about the DFA the Angels gave up, but Wade should be an improvement to their bench.
Probably one of my favorite players on the Giants. Unfortunately, he’s now a traitor, and also a liar as well. I don’t see any other option other than him living a life in pure trash, specifically in the back of my truck. Which is where I sleep when my wife isn’t giving me the heave-ho (we call it fat trash bag where I come from, and where I come from is usually where I wake up, which, today, was in the back of my garbage truck surrounded by trash).
Hey Perry, call up Moore now. Your options at 2nd base stink beyond pale.
Moore is on pace for 193 Ks and 9 HRs, and that includes his AA stats. He is nowhere close to the majors right now, imho.
I hope the Angels take their time for once.
A request, it’d be good to have a better understanding of the mechanics of this trade. How can a player be traded with cash for cash, should it shake out like that?
It was Nick Deeds writing the article. Don’t expect it to make any sense. Go read the actual sports journalist sources for his piece here. Oh wait, he didn’t link to any. Typical Deeds. .
ANUDDER genius move by the Angel’s management ……
Huh. I expect we’ll see O’Hearn or Lowe or similar traded to them in the not too distant future.
All we need now is Danny Glover manage the Angels
It’s only been two games and I’ve had enough of Wade?
Another pathetic move