Healthy Wade ready to claim 1B job, regain '21 form

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- There was one guy manager Gabe Kapler was most excited to see when position players reported to Giants camp on Sunday: LaMonte Wade Jr.

“LaMonte has had a very focused offseason,” Kapler said. “He’s been very driven, self-motivated, locked in on his own, nobody is pushing him. He’s done all the right things without a lot of fanfare.”

The club’s breakout hitter in 2021, Wade endured an injury-wrecked campaign last year, but the Giants are counting on him to be a big piece of the roster moving forward. With longtime first baseman Brandon Belt now with the Blue Jays, Wade is expected to have a chance to seize the everyday role there this spring and reclaim the clutch form that earned him his “Late Night” nickname two years ago.

“I’m definitely going to miss Brandon,” Wade said Monday following the Giants’ first full-squad workout at Scottsdale Stadium. “Brandon taught me a lot on and off the field, so he will be missed. I still talk to him all the time, actually. But I think it shows that they believe in me to be able to take this next step. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

2022 was a bit of a lost season for Wade, who never felt completely healthy after suffering a bone bruise in his left knee last spring. One year after posting a career-high .808 OPS with 18 home runs for the 107-win Giants, Wade dealt with multiple trips to the injured list and finished with a .664 OPS with eight homers over 77 games.

“I came into Spring Training not really feeling too good last year with the knee,” Wade said. “I think it kind of started the last couple of weeks of the season in ‘21. With the lockout, we weren’t able to communicate how we should have and could have. I wasn’t really too surprised that the knee blew out when it did. I thought it was going to be a little sooner than that. But it definitely derailed the season for me, physically and mentally. You just flush it. I’m healthy now, and I feel way better than I ever have. I think it’s going to be a good year. If I stay on top of everything I need to do physically and mentally, I think I’ll be all right.”

Wade, 29, said his nagging knee issue ultimately stemmed from the fact that his left leg was weaker than his right leg. Surgery was floated as a possibility at the end of the regular season, but it wouldn’t have been an easy procedure and would have caused Wade to miss more time. He opted to spend his offseason rehabbing in his native Baltimore, where he focused on strengthening his left leg -- especially his hamstring and quadriceps -- to take some pressure off his troublesome knee.

Now that both legs are equally strong, Wade believes he’ll have the necessary foundation to rebound and deliver the steady offensive production the Giants will need out of first base in 2023.

“I couldn’t really even bend my legs [last year],” Wade said. “I like to sit in my legs when I hit. I sat in my legs all of 2021. To go from sitting in your legs and using your lower half, which is my stronger half, to standing straight up -- it’s not going to be a good result. You try to manipulate your swing up top to compensate for down low, but if one half of your swing isn’t going to work, the rest of it probably isn’t going to work either. It does feel good to come in here and be able to sit in my legs and go out here Day 1 and participate and do everything how I want to do it. I’m looking forward to that and keep growing.”

The Giants will likely miss Belt’s Gold Glove-caliber defense at first, but they believe Wade will be able to fill in capably given his past experience at the position. Wade has primarily played outfield in the Majors, but he was a first baseman in college and showed he could play at a high level there when Belt was hurt in 2021.

“I think LaMonte has a chance to be pretty rangy,” Kapler said. “He moves laterally really well. He’s a fairly gifted athlete. I think he has a chance to be rangy. I think he has naturally good hands. He’s an accurate thrower. It’s not a physical package that jumps off the page athletically, but he’s plenty capable."