Jake Meyers

84+1⁄3 innings pitched. ^[9]

Professional career

2017—2020

Meyers with the Houston Astros in 2022

The Houston Astros selected Meyers in the 13th round of the 2017 Major League Baseball draft. ^[10] After signing with the team he was assigned to the Tri-City ValleyCats. Meyers was assigned to the Class A Quad Cities River Bandits to start the 2018 season before being promoted to the Buies Creek Astros of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League. ^[11]

He returned to the Carolina League with the renamed Fayetteville Woodpeckers at the beginning of the 2019 season, where hit batted .258 with eight home runs and 41 RBIs and was named a Mid-Season All-Star before being promoted to the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks. ^{[12] [13]} He was a non-roster invitee for the Astros in spring training in 2020 before it, and later the minor league season, were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[14]

2021

He opened the 2021 season with the Sugar Land Skeeters. On July 31, 2021, Houston selected Meyers' contract and promoted him to the active roster. Having traded regular center fielder Myles Straw to the Cleveland Indians, the Astros gave Meyers and fellow rookie Chas McCormick the opportunity to play more. ^[15] Meyers made his Major League debut on August 1 as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of a 5–3 loss to the San Francisco Giants. ^[16] Meyers hit his first career home run on August 14, against Los Angeles Angels' pitcher Jaime Barría, and hit a grand slam later in the same game as the Astros won, 8–2. ^[17] On August 25, Meyers won the YouTube Game of the Week MVP for knocking in the winning run against the Kansas City Royals.

In the 2021 regular season, Meyers appeared in 49 total games and took 163 plate appearances. He batted .260/.323/.438 with six home runs and 28 RBI, 10 bases on balls (BB) and 50 strikeouts. He appeared in 39 games in center field, four in left field, and three in right field. His play was credited with +4 total Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) while he recording one outfield assist and one error. ^[18] In Game 4 of the American League Division Series (ALDS) versus the Chicago White Sox, Meyers sustained an injury to his left shoulder while attempting to catch a home run ball hit by Gavin Sheets. ^[19] He was unable to play in the remainder of the Astros' World Series run. On November 10, he underwent surgery to repair the torn labrum in the left shoulder, which was anticipated to delay his start to the 2022 season. ^[20]

2022

On June 24, 2022, the club activated Meyers from the 60-day injured list. ^[21] He hit a three-run home run versus Michael Lorenzen on July 1 to help spark a 5–1 win versus the Los Angeles Angels. ^[22]

For the 2022 regular season, Meyers batted .227/.269/.313 in 150 at bats with one home run, 15 RBIs, and two stolen bases over 52 games with the major league club. ^[23] He made 51 defensive appearances, all in center field. His eight total zone runs ranked fourth at his position in the AL. ^[18]

In Game 1 of the 2022 ALDS, Meyers appeared as a pinch runner in the ninth inning and scored the lead run on a Yordan Alvarez three-run walk-off home run, for an 8–7 final over the Seattle Mariners. It was the first walk-off home run in an MLB postseason contest with the home team down to their final out in the ninth inning and trailing by more than one run. ^{[24] [25]}

2023

On May 21, 2023, Meyers reached base in a ninth consecutive plate appearance before a groundout. ^[26] His running catch of an Owen Miller fly ball at the warning track in the sixth inning with a runner on at American Family Field on May 22 helped preserve a 2–1 Astros lead. The catch was recognized with the MLB Play of the Week Award on May 30. ^{[27] [28]} Meyers collected his first career four-hit game in the major leagues versus the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre on June 5. On August 6, he homered twice and drove in a career-high six runs to lead Houston to a 9–7 win over New York at Yankee Stadium. ^[29]

2024

In 2024, Meyers played in a career-high 148 games, batting .219/.286/.360, 20 doubles, 13 home runs, 61 RBI and 11 stolen bases over 513 plate appearances. He ranked third in the American League (AL) in double plays grounded into with 17. Defensively, he was fifth in the AL in total zone runs (15), and led his position in fielding percentage (.997), was second among center fielders in total zone runs, and third in games (144) and putouts (349), ^[23]

Player profile

As a right-handed batter and left-handed thrower, Meyers was one of two position players with this characteristic to play in the major leagues in 2023. Teammate Chas McCormick was the other. Meyers' father, Paul, is also a former outfielder who batted right-handed and threw left-handed. ^{[a] [30]}

Personal life

Meyers married Maddie Lammel, a second-grade teacher, in December 2021. Their daughter, Ava, was born in December 2022. ^[31]

References

Footnotes

1. A rare characteristic, from 2000 to 2022, twenty-nine different seasons with at least 100 games were logged by position players in the major leagues with this combination of batting and throwing handedness.

Sources

1. "2017 Baseball Roster". University of Nebraska Baseball.
2. "2017 Baseball Roster". University of Nebraska Baseball.
3. "2017 Baseball Roster". University of Nebraska Baseball.
4. "Boys Basketball Finishes Season As Class A Runner-Up". Westside Wired.
5. "Jake Meyers". Lincoln Journal Star . June 2, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
6. "2017 Baseball Roster". University of Nebraska Baseball.
7. Hambleton, Ken (February 17, 2016). "Silva excited about Husker arms". Lincoln Journal Star . Retrieved October 1, 2024.
8. Krueger, Adam (February 6, 2017). "Meyers Named Preseason All-American". 3NewsNow.com .
9. "Meyers will forgo senior season". Lincoln Journal Star . June 21, 2017.
10. "Nebraska's Jake Meyers decides to sign with Houston Astros; Westside grad says decision is about opportunity, not money". Omaha World-Herald . June 21, 2017.
11. "Bandits' Meyers follows in his father's footsteps". Quad-City Times . June 13, 2018.
12. "Jacob Meyers Promoted to Double-A Corpus Christi". OurSports Central. August 3, 2019.
13. "Former Fayetteville Woodpeckers make MLB training camp rosters". The Fayetteville Observer . June 29, 2020.
14. Smith, Rex (June 21, 2020). "Jake Meyers talks lack of deal for 2020 MLB season". WOWT. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
15. Kaplan, Jake (July 31, 2021). "In their surprise trade of Myles Straw, the Astros make a big bet on Chas McCormick and Jake Meyers". The Athletic . Retrieved July 31, 2021.
16. Kaplan, Jake (August 2, 2021). "On the arrival of Astros outfielder Jake Meyers, a late bloomer from a Nebraska baseball family". The Athletic. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
17. McTaggart, Brian (August 15, 2021). "Jake rakes! Meyers hits 1st HR, adds slam". MLB.com . Retrieved August 15, 2021.
18. "Jake Meyers stats". Baseball-Reference.com . Retrieved November 14, 2021.
19. Zwerneman, Brent (October 22, 2021). "It stings, but injured Jake Meyers is ready to find other ways to help Astros". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
20. "Astros center fielder Jake Meyers has shoulder surgery". Houston Chronicle. Associated Press. November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
21. RotoWire Staff (June 24, 2022). "Astros' Jake Meyers: Activated from IL". CBSSports.com. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
22. "Javier fans career-high 14 to lead Astros over Angels 8–1". ESPN.com. Associated Press. July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
23. "Jake Meyers Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More". Baseball-Reference.com.
24. "ALDS Game 1: Yordan Álvarez mashes 3-run, walk off homer to give Astros 8–7 win over Mariners". khou.com. October 11, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
25. "2022 American League Division Series (ALDS) Game 1". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
26. McTaggart, Brian [@brianmctaggart] (May 21, 2023). "Jake Meyers had reached base in 9 consecutive plate appearances before making an out in the 8th inning" (Tweet). Houston, Texas. Retrieved May 21, 2023– via Twitter.
27. Rajan, Greg (May 23, 2023). "With recent hot stretch, center fielder Jake Meyers emerging as key contributor for Astros" . Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
28. "Meyers wins Play of the Week". MLB.com. May 30, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
29. "Meyers hits pair of 3-run HRs and Astros go deep 4 times to beat Yankees 9–7 for a 4-game split". ESPN.com. Associated Press. August 6, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
30. Kawahara, Matt (July 21, 2023). "Righty at the plate, lefty in the field: Astros' Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers and the Rickey Henderson Anomaly". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
31. Young, Matt (March 14, 2023). "Astros center fielder Jake Meyers playing with renewed confidence". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved March 30, 2023.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or  ESPN, or  Baseball Reference, or  Fangraphs, or  Baseball Reference (Minors), or  Retrosheet
• Nebraska Cornhuskers bio

Jake Meyers
Meyers with the Sugar Land Skeeters in 2021
Houston Astros – No. 6
Outfielder
Born: (1996-06-18) June 18, 1996 (age 28) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Bats: Right Throws: Left
MLB debut
August 1, 2021, for the Houston Astros

v t e Houston Astros current roster
Active roster	3 Jeremy Peña 4 Pedro León 6 Jake Meyers 9 Zach Dezenzo 10 Shay Whitcomb 11 Grae Kessinger 13 Cooper Hummel 14 Mauricio Dubón 17 Víctor Caratini 18 César Salazar 20 Chas McCormick 21 Yainer Díaz 27 Jose Altuve 28 Jon Singleton 30 Kyle Tucker 41 Spencer Arrighetti 43 Lance McCullers Jr. 44 Yordan Alvarez 52 Bryan Abreu 53 Cristian Javier 54 Tayler Scott 55 Ryan Pressly 56 Ronel Blanco 58 Hunter Brown 59 Framber Valdez 60 Forrest Whitley 62 Bennett Sousa 63 Kaleb Ort 66 Shawn Dubin 67 Ryan Gusto 68 J. P. France 71 Josh Hader 72 Nick Hernandez 73 Luis Contreras 74 Bryan King 77 Luis García 89 Kenedy Corona -- Taylor Trammell
Coaching staff	Manager 19 Joe Espada Bench coach 22 Omar López First base 23 Dave Clark Third base -- Tony Perezchica Hitting 37 Alex Cintrón Assistant Hitting 46 Troy Snitker Pitching 41 Bill Murphy Bullpen 36 Josh Miller Quality control -- Jason Bell Catching Coach 29 Michael Collins Bullpen catcher 85 Javier Bracamonte