Former SF Giants POBO Farhan Zaidi is to blame for team's latest prospect mess-up

The SF Giants recently lost outfielder Wade Meckler to the Los Angeles Angels on a waiver claim. While Meckler never quite came into his own with the Giants, former president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi deserves the blame for losing Meckler.

Back in 2023 late in the season after the Giants had an incredibly uninspired trade deadline that saw them acquire A.J. Pollock, the team was desperate for offense. The Giants were right in the playoff hunt in the second half but the team collapsed late in the season and was willing to do anything for any kind of spark.

Farhan Zaidi is the reason SF Giants had to part with Wade Meckler

Some of us are old enough to remember the Giants touting Meckler's "video game numbers" that he had been putting up in the minor leagues. He was built up as a guy who could help save the offense even though he only had a little over a year in the minor leagues under his belt.

He proved to be thoroughly outmatched at the big league level as he slashed .232/.328/.250 with 13 hits and 25 strikeouts in 56 at-bats across 20 games. The Giants sent him down which burned one of his minor league options and started the clock on the options he had remaining.

Entering 2026 he would have had no minor league options remaining so he would have had to make the big league roster or been put on waivers after spring training which seemed like the most likely outcome which is why the Giants decided to pull the plug now.

Now, who knows if Meckler would have ever developed into anything special with the Giants. He was still seen as a potential breakout player last season but he never did enough to warrant a promotion even though he had a respectable slash line of .287/.390/.370 in Triple-A.

Clearly, he has impressive bat-to-ball skills and makes contact at a high rate which is what the Giants need more of at the big league level. But he just has so little power that it would be tough to justify having him on the team even though his speed and defense could have made him an asset.

But Meckler is yet another cautionary tale from the Zaidi era of the risk of calling prospects up too early. One could argue they did that with Marco Luciano and Luis Matos as well which potentially could have impacted the development of both players.

One hopes the Giants do not make the same mistake with top prospect Bryce Eldridge. Meckler does not have the potential of Eldridge so the Giants really cannot afford to mess up another prospect since they are obviously going to need more contributions from within as they remain eerily quiet in free agency.