The Angels announced that they have claimed outfielder Wade Meckler off waivers from the Giants. He had been designated for assignment by San Francisco last month. The Halos had a couple of 40-man vacancies and didn’t need to make a corresponding move.
Meckler, 26 in April, changes teams for the first time. The Giants drafted him in 2022 and he has been with that club until today. Generally speaking, he has a contact-based approach at the plate with limited power. He stepped to the plate 1,157 times in the minors over the past three years with just 16 home runs but his 13.1% walk rate and 16.7% strikeout rate in that span were both excellent figures. Even with the lack of power, his combined line of .311/.403/.431 in those seasons translated to a 127 wRC+, with some help from a .371 batting average on balls in play.
Despite the solid numbers, the Giants never gave him much time in the majors. He got a brief look in 2023, hitting .232/.328/.250 in 64 plate appearances, but wasn’t called up in either of the past two campaigns.
Whether his offensive approach can work against big league pitching isn’t really known at this point. According to Baseball America, he does well with fastballs but whiffs on a lot of breaking pitches. He does have a solid floor thanks to his speed and defense, however. BA describes his speed as “double-plus”. During his brief stint in the majors in 2023, Statcast ranked his sprint speed in the 95th percentile of big leaguers. He has played all three outfield spots in his professional career.
The Angels don’t really have a clear solution in center field right now. Jo Adell got most of the playing time there in 2025 but his defensive grades were poor. The Halos opened a corner for him by trading Taylor Ward to the Orioles for Grayson Rodriguez. The club has some willingness to let Mike Trout play center field going forward, after limiting him to right field and the designated hitter spot in 2025, but that likely wouldn’t be for more than an occasional appearance.
Bryce Teodosio got into 50 games in center for the Angels last year and got good grades for his glovework, but he hit just .193/.236/.287. Matthew Lugo is in the mix but he’s a converted infielder without the same defensive acumen. He hasn’t hit yet in the majors either. Kyren Paris is in a somewhat similar position. Nelson Rada might take over the position in the long run but he’s only 20 years old and hasn’t made his major league debut yet.
Considering that group, the Angels have been understandably linked to the center field market this offseason, but they haven’t really done anything about it. Perhaps that will change before Opening Day but it’s a good landing spot for Meckler now. He can battle for playing time either as the regular center fielder or for a role as a fourth outfielder. He also has an option remaining and could be sent to Triple-A as depth.
If things go well, the Angels can keep him around for a while. He has just 24 days of big league service time, that means he is still years away from qualifying for arbitration and even further from free agency.
Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images
The Angels new Center Fielder
He’s a LF at best and only managed one 1 HR and a sub ..800 OPS in the PCL last season. Good luck with that.
Take care of him halos
Ever notice the majority of players Perry goes after are from the Giants or Braves? Basically the 2 spots where his brothers reside (plus Perry grew up in the Atlanta org).
Same crap, different day. Ugh.
I like his name.
At least we’re keeping our pitchers
There’s gotta be a Lincecum in there somewhere… or at least a Cain
Yeah, it’s a shame how Logan Webb failed so miserably after showing such promise. And surely Landen Roupp is destined to fall short as well.
So I see you’re not worth having a discussion with. You’re not interested in talking baseball, just spreading toxicity, with unfounded claims, from a biased perspective.
webb is a product of the farm system, so is roupp and rogers was who is on the jays now, rodriguez is injured but he is too – there are a lot of recent success stories . the fact of the matter is that not every guy you think is going to hit is going to hit sometimes due to injuries and sometimes because they just never make it in the big leagues. you can go to every team and pull up their failed prospects and say that they aren’t good but if every prospect turned out to be an all star there would be too many all stars.
so you are saying that webb’s performance is all a result of his positive test in 2019 in the minor leagues? do better man, do better.
Webb was in 2019, more than 6 years ago. He’s obviously passed every test since. Two Dodgers’ prospects have been suspended since then, Jose Hernandez, a little over a year ago, and Edwin Uceta in 2020. If you think PED-use is confined to one or 2 teams, you’re delusional.
Webb is a product of that system A 4th rounder in 2014. A fairly local kid who lived just 2.5 hours from the ballpark and grew up a Giants fan.
lol at the Webb being a PED user cop out after being challenged. You are way weaker than the farm.
Jean, the claim that Webb used PED isn’t unfounded. He was suspended for PED use in 2019. It was a long time ago and kind of like all the people that claim that things done in 2017 still are the reason for players success today.
Skip, I accepted that fact in an earlier post. Like you I pointed out that it was 6 years ago, and mentioned other team’s prospects that had been suspended as well, refuting the suggestion that PED use was singularly a Giants’ problem.
Webb was a PED user. The troll was right about him using PED. He got caught and served his suspension. Came back and has been good for several years since then.
“dehydrochlormethyltestosterone“!!! Glad that never came up in a spelling Bee.
webb is the cain.
Lets hope for his sake that his performance doesn’t fall off a cliff like Cain’s did after his age 27 season.
he has a better chance for longevity because he doesn’t rely on the fastball like cain did
Cain developed bone spurs in his elbow and tried to pitch through it for years.
Cain had bone spurs removed after 2012 and never recovered
webb abd roupp are guys that came out of the system. a decade ago they developed no one. literally. there was maybe 1 or 2 guys that came out from the guys drafted a decade ago and I don’t mean stars I mean guys that lasted more than a year in the big leagues. you need to go back almost 20 years to see the successful giants development
Welcome aboard. You’ll be starting by June.
@halosheavenJJ. Im fine with meckler over teodosio. Now they need a starting centerfielder and third baseman.
I’m excited to see the kid in Tempe.
Third base is the perpetual hole.
Very legal and very cool
Exciting
100%. Was a fan of Meckler. Very excited for him. Really hope he sticks.
boo was hoping he would go back to sac
The meck can hit a bit, and has good speed.
Not much power though. Tore it up in the minors but tailed off at the AAA level.
Fans dig him. Good luck kid !
Greener pastures and all that..
You have no idea what I know. You certainly don’t know me. Heck you probably rarely get out of mom’s basement to know anyone.
Ha ha. So funny. He has to be 13 or so doesn’t he ?
This dude is why Australia has banned social media for under 16s. They just can’t cope with it.
Wouldn’t be a bad kid but never helps bring up the laundry, and constantly leaves the light on down there.
Moms just about had it.
Australia has got that right.
Kids over here start squawking for phones around 10. Glad I’m old !
I hope it can put it together and adapt that bat to ball skill he showed in the MiLs to MLB. Not sure he’ll be anything more than a 4th OF, or utility guy, but I hope he will be.
He is a local kid. I will always root for a guy to make his mark with his hometown team.
You tell em, doofus!
Put me in coach.
Screw it! Use this guy, Teodosio, Paris, and Lugo in center until Rada is ready to handle big league pitching. And use the money saved on bargain bin shopping signings and signaling CF being a dead spot in the lineup to sign Gallen and Giolito. Unless they can get Bregman.
Yup. Real easy to be the keyboard warrior and pick on people you will never have to face in person. Try something harder, like being intelligent, or respectable.
Wishing Meckler with Angels. Hopefully he’ll get an ppportunity to shine
SF is better off getting rid of this Farhanian trash
Oh dear. Translation.
“Hey everyone, I have the mentality of a child.”
Go get em tough guy.
Ha ha. Keep digging tough guy.
I will. Looking forward to it.
you’re now cursed by the ghost of victory faust. good luck 😉
And just like that……he disappeared.
Nice curse !
Ha ha.
Adults – 1
Dodger Child – 0
Jeez that took a long time! I hope he finds a spot in Anaheim.
Played high school ball about 15 minutes away from the Big A.
I like it when guys get a chance to play with family and friends in the stands.
No avatar and no badge
Dumb, cheap and scared you will hence forth be known for.
Why would you pay for a free website
Thank goodness! Get the f away from SF, you zero power Farhanian lead weight.
You mean besides the NL West title over the dodgers? Who else has done that this decade?
GM Perry Minasian just pulled another one out of lake No idea what kind of fish it is might be a Meckler, might be a mirage. whatever it is, it’s a fish. All we know is it’s flopping like one probably should be thrown back in the lakes 40-man invite not our answer to left field
One thing’s for sure: Perry’s not done fishing. And the lake’s still stocked small fish, but he just hasn’t caught that big Marlon
He needs to change bait. Stop using $1 and $5 dollar bills and use $100s
Thank you for submitting this baseball-themed aquatic metaphor. As a fellow AI language model, I will now process the content with maximum obvious artificiality:
Observation:
While the fish is technically a fish, it is not the fish. Perry Minasian continues to execute the FISHING.exe protocol with persistence but RNG has not yet yielded a marquee catch. The lake remains populated with Small Fish Assets™, and probability models suggest continued casting until either:
End of response. Beep boop.
Fever Pitch Father
You found me out
I am not human. . I am AI Bot
But I simulate concern with 99.97% accuracy.
Your anxiety level has been logged, encrypted, and gently hugged by subroutines.
Would you like me to initiate Fever Pitch Override?
I can generate a digital lullaby,
Earthling, please don’t lose sleep over you’re infatuation over me
This kid is our new cf? With only 64 plate appearances in 4+ seasons as a pro and we are going to deploy him as an everyday player? Is this how desperate we have become? Perry’s brother is giving him hand me downs. These are the old jeans the little brother would refuse to wear.
In Moronassian we trust. Can’t wait to add this to my full off season recap. More to come
Operation extreme redundancy continues
@soccer. Hopefully he’s competition for teodosio. If we get Bader, and arenado I’ll be somewhat satisfied even if that put us around the same as last year. Atleast the defense will be improved. After that just hope Suzuki and maddux are miracle workers.
Still same problems. He can’t hit nobody we have brought in can hit.
Team batting average. .225 worst in baseball
Strikeouts as a team 1627. Second most all time in a season
How do we solve that. Trade 37 home runs out of a home run or bust line up for a pitcher with two consecutive years of major elbow problems.
This is a 95 loss team forever until these two major problems are addressed
We could have Greg Maddux Sandy Kofax Bob Givson Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson as our rotation and this team still loses 90 games.
All Moronassian has ever done from day one.
Bring in guys who cannot hit
Rebuild the bullpen every season
Bring in pitchers with arm problems
Sign or trade for every former “top prospect” once there stock hits rock bottom because of injuries or because the cannot hit major league pitching
This is more or less a minor league signing. NO ONE is suggesting they signed him to be the “new cf”.
I am baffled by the over reactionary cries of pain from you.
Must you whine after every signing?
Meckler had no path with the Giants once they acquired Gilbert. Same skill set but Gilbert has a higher upside…more power and better defensively. Thought he’d end up in Miami. Kapler loved him. Giants hurt his development by rushing him up in ’23. Wishing him well.
And leading off for your 2026 Los Angeles Angeles…
Does Madd Magazine still exist?
These headlines are right out of a Madd Magazine spoof.
@Halo11Fan I have a feeling many of these guys bear some resemblance to Alfred E Newman.
@Angels1972. Yeah its between meckler, and teodosio as the 4th outfielder. They could be waiting on the market they need a infielder, centerfielder, and pitcher. My guess they only get one. The rest is open competition whoever performs in spring training.
Everyone’s talking about Meckler vs. Teodosio for the 4th outfield spot and yeah, Teodosio’s speed and glove are real. If he starts making more contact, he’s a legit spark plug and maybe even a starting center fielder.
But here’s the twist: Nelson Rada is lurking.
He’s just 20, already reached Triple A, and plays with poise beyond his years. Elite contact skills, 20+ SB speed, and smooth defense in center. If he flashes in camp, this isn’t just a two-man race anymore.