The SF Giants seemingly just promoted Wade Meckler 2.0 to the big leagues

The SF Giants just promoted the speedy outfielder Grant McCray to the major leagues from Triple-A Sacramento. The hope is that he can provide solid defense in center field and perhaps a spark at the plate. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

The Grant McCray promotion feels oddly familiar for the SF Giants

The date was August 14th. The Giants were struggling to score runs a few weeks after a trade deadline that saw them add no major offensive weapons. They decided that in order to shake things up they were going to call up a speedy young 23-year old prospect who was doing well in Triple-A.

That paragraph can apply to both 2023 and 2024 for the Giants.

If you recall back to last season, the Giants were in contention for the playoffs but their offense began to crater in the second half of the season. In a move that was somewhat desperate, they called up outfielder Wade Meckler to try and provide a spark for the offense.

He had only had 10 games in Triple-A before he was called up and the Giants really built him up as a potential savior. They talked about his insane contact rate, great plate discipline, and video game numbers. He had been tearing up the minor leagues, but we all know that the big leagues are a completely different animal.

It was clear pretty much right away that Meckler was simply outmatched at the big league level. In 56 at-bats with the Giants last year Meckler struck out 25 times. That is simply atrocious. After 20 games the Giants had seen enough and they sent him back down.

Now, a year later to the exact day when Meckler was called up, the Giants call up Grant McCray who has a strikingly similar profile to Meckler. McCray is also a guy who is more known for his defense and speed who the Giants are hoping can get on base for them and wreak havoc on the bases.

The main difference is that in the minors this year, McCray had 45 walks compared with 121 strikeouts whereas Meckler had a much more impressive strikeout to walk ratio in the minors. That does not inspire a ton of confidence that he is going to produce at the big league level.

McCray went 0-4 in his Giants debut on Wednesday night. One hopes that he is the spark that the Giants need, but it seems much more likely that he will be another case of a young prospect being rushed up too soon and asked to do too much by a front office that is unwilling to truly make big trades for more proven talent.