Persistence Has Paid Off For Giants’ Wade Meckler

Giants farm director Kyle Haines believes outfielder Wade Meckler can be “the spark plug that ignites the lineup” for either Low-A San Jose or High-A Eugene this season.

The Giants took Meckler, who went to Oregon State, in the eighth round last year. He then hit  .367/.500/.544 in 23 games between the Arizona Complex League and San Jose.

“He’s the kind of the player who I think fans tend to love to watch play,” Haines said. “He’s going to get a walk. He’s going to steal second, maybe third. He’s going to get a big hit to drive people in.” 

Listed at 5-foot-10, 178 pounds, Meckler is a lefthanded hitter with great bat-to-ball skills, Haines said. Meckler struck out 16 times in 100 minor league plate appearances in 2022.

“He’s got a good line-drive stroke,” Haines said. “He’ll show you some occasional power to the left-center field area . . . I think the only thing left for him to conquer is just consistently driving the ball a little more, which will come around with more experience and also some training in the weight room.”

Meckler’s backstory sounds like a tall tale, but is true. He was a 4-foot-10, 75-pound freshman at Esperanza High in Anaheim. He was an excellent student who applied to Harvard, Yale and Georgetown only to be told by each school’s baseball program that he would not quite make its roster.

He went 1-for-10 as a freshman walk-on at Oregon State in 2019. In November of that year, Mitch Canham—who had become the Beavers’ head coach in June—told Meckler he should transfer because he wouldn’t get much playing time.

Meckler stayed in Corvallis and looked as if he had made the 35-man roster in 2020 but was cut just before the pandemic-shortened season began. His persistence finally paid off in 2021, when he hit .303/.396/.472 in 49 games.

He really blossomed in 2022, when he hit .347/.456/.478 in 66 games.

“He’s not a guy who’s going to give up easily,” Haines said, “whether it’s an at-bat, whether it’s a game or whether it’s on his career.”