This Halos Hustle Player Deserves A Role Next Year

The Los Angeles Angels haven’t had a lot of fun stories this season, but outfielder Wade Meckler was one of them. The Angles signed Meckler to a minor league deal after the San Francisco Giants cut him loose, and the mustachioed, bespectacled outfielder proceeded to have a rather remarkable season. 

It started out like the opening lines about a player who might be poised to become a cult figure. He’s a hustle player, and back in the day Meckler might have been described as a “dirt dog.” He’s more than willing to throw his body around to make a play, and sometimes the results of this were more perilous and comical than productive. 

But then a funny thing started to happen: Meckler’s defense slowly improved, and he started to hit. The latter was completely unexpected, and it occurred on a team that was fielding what amounted to a Triple-A lineup by the beginning of August once the dust cleared after the trade deadline. 

Meckler became one of the best stories of the season on a very bad team that went on to lose 100 games. He stuck out like a sore thumb among teammates who were striking out constantly, giving away at-bats and showing a near-total lack of focus in the field.

His final average was just below .300, and that’s a player almost any team would love to have, especially given his contract level. (Brewers, anyone?) The player affectionately known as “The Meck” actually became lovable on a team that was very hard to love. 

So is he worth a starting job? Well, it’s complicated. Hustle players are a bit of a conundrum in today’s game, as every team needs a couple of them but nobody wants to value them all that highly as they come up through farm systems or are acquired by trade. That’s why they tend to drift from team to team, but Meckler should be one of those guys. 

The caveat is that some players hit in some team’s systems, while some hit in others. Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason in this, and Meckler is actually a perfect example of how this works. He was flushed by the Giants, who are a mess right now, and he succeeded with the Angels, who are even more of a mess, although the new ownership group offers hope for next year and beyond. 

The safest bet with Meckler is to pencil him in as a fourth outfielder, then see what the team looks like in the spring to see if he represents a possible starter.