Players rarely get to end their careers on a high note.
Alex Pavlovic posted to social media that the San Francisco Giants has traded 1B/DH/OF LaMonte Wade Jr. to the Los Angeles Angels for a player to be named later or cash considerations. While LWJ’s time with the Giants had logically run its course, this is still a tough place to land after being designated for assignment four days ago as the Angels are, rather famously, not very good.
Isn’t it so “us” (Giants fans) to have made a platoon player seem so important? That’s sort of been our deal for decades now. Like… I made this. That’s how big a part of the Giants he’d become.
But still, it’s always a little sad when a player who stuck loses stickiness and falls off the roster.
Late Night LaMonte was a whole thing, but like so many baseball fads, there was a crash and burn that quickly put those good times in the rearview. Still, for four seasons, he was another great success of the Bottom-Up roster construction model favored by the franchise’s former President of Baseball Operations. His 115 wRC+ in 1,552 plate appearances (438 games) from 2021-2024 was far from spectacular, but it was valuable, particularly from an on base standpoint. Indeed, his .352 OBP was 31st in MLB (min. 1,500 PA) over this span. Our Steven Kennedy called him our Juan Soto in his player review for this very reason. Getting on base is extremely valuable!
But last year’s .381 slugging percentage was a major red flag. There was some thought that injuries had sapped his power and that a healthy start to this season or even healthy spurts during the season would stabilize that number, but right from the start something didn’t seem quite right about LWJ. And his performance only got worse, even as he remained healthy and even with flashes of maybe coming out of a bad funk to start the season. He became a total liability, at the plate and on defense.
I was on the “What’s wrong with LaMonte Wade Jr.?” beat early because I considered him an important figure when it came to projecting the team’s success in 2025. The Giants needed a high on base guy in the lineup and a platoon partner at first base until Bryce Eldridge developed — an outcome that should still not be considered a given despite how much he’s tearing up the minors — and while it was perhaps a bit foolish for the Giants to count on so many guys to repeat career averages (I’m talking Wilmer Flores, Mike Yastrzemski, and LaMonte Wade Jr.), I’ll declare it’s a bummer that it’s Wade who became the odd man out.
The Giants weren’t shy about DFA’ing Lou Trivino after a tough first month or escorting Jordan Hicks out of the rotation once it became clear that he wasn’t going to be effective there, and so it was a few weeks ago that I wondered if LWJ would be next on the chopping block. That basically turned out to be the case.
Baseball is a hard game wrapped up in a tough business, but nobody could argue that the Giants didn’t give him plenty of runway to figure things out. Now, he’ll have to do it in the mythical city of Anaheim, where careers tend to peter out rather than flourish; however, as this is the first trade between two brother GM — Giants GM Zack Minasian and Angels GM Perry Minasian — there is a chance that he does bounce back to have a solid bounce back in 2025. After all, Perry won the Minasian Bowl this season. Getting the best of his brother in a trade would only rub salt in the wound. Wade Jr. has done well in AL West stadiums in a very small sample size so, who knows? Maybe this will work out spectacularly for him and the Angels.
Thanks for the memories, LaMonte Wade Jr.