Angels may have found a long-term answer in the outfield they never saw coming

There’s nothing quite like when something not going to plan is a good thing. That’s what happened for the Los Angeles Angels with Wade Meckler, an outfielder they didn’t draft or even view as a real roster piece. He was claimed off waivers in January after being designated for assignment by the San Francisco Giants. Now he’s a great story.

His path to the majors wasn’t exactly traditional, pausing for a second DFA and a stint in the minors, mostly in AA Rocket City. He hit .347/.450/.525 there after a week in AAA Salt Lake before getting the call to the big leagues. He hasn’t looked back.

From waiver-wire afterthought to fan favorite for the Angels

It never hurts to shine in your debut. He went 2-3 with a home run against the Rangers in his debut, and the Orange County native hasn’t really cooled off since. He had a .340/.417/.547 line through his first 17 games, and while he hasn’t been quite that good since, he’s a mainstay now.

Maybe the signature moment of his young career came against the Tampa Bay Rays when he launched a grand slam that helped the Angels blow out the Rays in Tampa. It was the kind of swing that takes a feel-good story into an actual problem for opponents. 

Yes, he’s cooled off since that burst, but his line of .307/.376/.417 is really solid as an everyday player’s line. That’s not a knock. It’s just the more realistic version of what he can be over a full season, and it still plays a legitimate answer in left field for a team that had nothing settled there entering the season. 

And while fan voting for the All-Star Game doesn’t always tell a story, it’s nice to see that he fared well there too. He climbed as high as 13th among American League outfielders, and was ahead of his teammate, Jo Adell, despite having played less than a month of baseball when voting was conducted. It’s a testament to just how quickly he’s won over a fanbase that watched him grow up so close to the stadium before he ever had a chance. 

There was a scare in early June when he collided hard with the wall against the Rays and had to leave the game as a precaution, but he passed all concussion protocols and was back in the lineup soon. If there was any concern about lingering effects, he’s hit .318/.384/.364 since, so it seems like it’s all good. But the moment really showed just how important he is when he became a “we can’t afford to lose him” guy that quickly.

Can he do this over 500+ plate appearances? That remains to be seen. The underlying numbers that include an average exit velocity of 86.7 MPH and a barrel rate of just 5.2 percent aren’t exactly encouraging. But he doesn’t chase, and he makes a decent enough amount of contact that you feel like some semblance of this is sustainable. The Angels saw him as a potential roster answer when they first claimed him, and nothing has changed that.

If Meckler keeps hitting like an everyday answer in left field, the Angels will have found more than a nice story. They’ll have a cost-controlled, homegrown-ish piece to build around, all from a player who's been discarded multiple times. You can’t draw that up, but you do have to be savvy enough to notice it when it shows up on your doorstep.

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