Feb 28, 2023; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; Houston Astros center fielder Jake Meyers (6) hits a double during the first inning against the New York Mets at Clover Park. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Astros Player of the Day: Jake Meyers
Welcome to the Gallery Sports’ Houston Astros Spring Training player spotlight: Astros Player of the Day. We will look at a different Astros player each day throughout the spring.
Today’s Astros Player of the Day is center fielder Jake Meyers.
Meyers is a Houston draft pick, coming to the Astros in round 13 of the 2017 draft after playing his college ball at Nebraska. Meyers hit well in his final two seasons for the Cornhuskers, finishing with a .326 average in 2016 and a .297 average in 2017 before being drafted.
He remained at the Single-A level after being drafted, until moving up to Double-A in the later parts of the 2019 minor-league season. He played 24 games there and hit just .214 before the 2020 minor league season was canceled due to COVID. He did, however, get some time with the major league team over that stretch, getting an invite to the delayed spring training of 2020 and an invite in 2021 before starting the season with Triple-A Sugar Land.
He was sensational for Sugar Land that season, hitting for a .343 average and 1.006 OPS with 16 home runs and 51 RBI over 68 games, which earned him his MLB debut on Aug. 1, 2021. He had a good first month in the big leagues, finishing August with a .316 average while driving in 16 runs, including three homers. September didn’t go quite as well, but Meyers ramped things up in the final stretch of games before his first postseason.
In the ALDS against the White Sox, Meyers started the scoring in Game 1 with an RBI single as the Astros would go on to win that game 6-1. He had another early RBI in Game 3, though Houston would end up dropping that game 12-6. In Game 4, Meyers would see his debut season with the big club come to a disappointingly abrupt ending, colliding with the center field wall while attempting to prevent a solo home run, resulting in a shoulder injury that would require surgery in the offseason.
He would return to the field for a rehab assignment in June 2022, then rejoined the major league club on June 24, 2022. He showed signs of promise in the first stretch of games in his return, getting hits in eleven of his first fourteen games, including a nine-game hitting streak, but things would regress from there as his average dwindled to .209, and he mustered just eight hits in 42 at-bats in August before the team would move him back down to Triple-A.
He did get recalled to the Astros in the final week of the 2022 regular season but would make just one start in the postseason as Houston leaned on Chas McCormick as their everyday center fielder. It sets up a potential battle during Spring Training, as Meyers, who has an edge in defensive capability, will try to earn more playing time by showing he can get back to his offensive potential to put him in a position to steal playing time from McCormick.
