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Bryce Eldridge isn’t the savior. He’s not the automatic ticket to the playoffs. He doesn’t make the Giants better than the Dodgers. He might not even help the Giants reach the postseason.
What Eldridge does is give the clubhouse another jolt when it needs it most. His arrival is a reminder that if the team is trending in the right direction, Buster Posey will do what he can to elevate the process and give the Giants a better shot.
The 6-foot-7 Eldridge, the Giants’ top prospect with elite hitting potential, who transitioned to first base this season, will join the big-league team in Arizona for its series against the Diamondbacks beginning Monday night, The Standard confirmed.
Things developed quickly. First baseman Dominic Smith sustained a hamstring injury Friday that could cost him the rest of the season. Then the Giants played consecutive stinkers Saturday and Sunday against the Dodgers, leaving them a game and a half out of the wild-card race, with 13 games to go.
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In a perfect world, Posey would have preferred Eldridge to continue to get seasoning with Triple-A Sacramento. Asked Aug. 26 if the 20-year-old would play in the bigs this season, he said, “I’d say most likely not. We want him to just get that consistent play. And we want him, when his time does come, to feel like we’re putting him in the best position to hit the ground running.”
At the time, there wasn’t much of a calling for Eldridge. The Giants seemed buried in the wild-card standings and were just two games into their shocking stretch of winning 11 of 12. So when Posey spoke those words, leaving Eldridge in Sacramento made sense. Alternating Rafael Devers and Smith at first base was perfectly fine.
But Smith’s injury, coupled with the weekend meltdowns, created an urgency for the young bopper, and Posey made the right move to get him on the roster for the season’s final two weeks. Why not take a chance on the kid? If nothing else, he’ll get reps that’ll help him transition to big-league life next season. And who knows? The streaky Giants might have one more mad dash in them, and the nosediving Mets (owners of the final wild-card spot) could continue to flounder.
Devers, a third baseman and DH in Boston, remains relatively new to first base, but he has made some fabulous plays around the bag and looks increasingly comfortable. Eldridge, also new to the position, has made impressive strides this summer. The Giants could work Eldridge in at DH to get both him and Devers in the lineup especially against right-handed pitchers.
Some in the organization have frowned on using such a young player at DH and would like to see him develop at a position. Perhaps at some point, Eldridge will blossom into the everyday first baseman with Devers getting most of the DH reps. But for now, Devers prefers playing defense, and he has far more experience as a corner infielder than Eldridge.
The most important element for now is Eldridge’s bat. He had a combined 25 homers and 84 RBIs in Double-A and Triple-A despite missing time with wrist and hamstring injuries. With Sacramento, he hit 18 homers with an .836 OPS in 66 games. He could walk a bit more and strike out a bit less, but elite power is elite power, and it’s to all fields.
Fans want this, though they’ll see him at Oracle Park for just the final week, the six regular-season home games against St. Louis and Colorado, plus any postseason home games. The players undoubtedly want it, too, anything to boost the win column. If there was any doubt about whether the veterans can embrace rookies, see how they’ve warmed to Drew Gilbert and his over-the-top rah-rah antics.
The Eldridge Watch officially began in early June when Posey promoted him from Double-A to Triple-A, the final step before the majors, and said “decisions and conversations are fluid. Things can change. … We most definitely want to put him in a position to succeed. But yeah, ultimately, the goal is to win games at the big-league level.”
Bingo. That’s why Posey traded for Devers in mid-June. He was putting the final touches on the trade at a time the Giants were tied for first place. Weirdness ensued after the trade, however, and the Giants went in the tank. But they rebounded and now have playoff hopes. Thus the Eldridge transaction.
Posey can relate to a young player achieving September experience. The decorated catcher was called up for the first time in September 2009, and while he did not produce at the plate — .118 average, no RBIs in 17 at-bats — it was a stepping stone for both him and the team. He was called up for good in late May of 2010, and the Giants went on to win the World Series, their first of three over a glorious five-year stretch, all on Posey’s watch.
Eldridge won’t be pressured into following in Posey’s footsteps, but this fling in a big-league uniform will give him comfort and confidence heading into spring training in February. Not that he lacks confidence. I liken him to a young Will Clark — again, no pressure, Bryce — because of how he wants to be “the guy” with the Giants, relied on as a difference-maker in the middle of the lineup.
When Clark came up, he already had three seasons at Mississippi State and the 1984 Olympics on his resume. Conversely, Eldridge is two years removed from high school and still learning how to play first base. With assistance from a lot of folks, including Clark himself, he has gained valuable intel and playing time at the position.
But again, this is about Eldridge’s bat and how he can help ignite an offense that has hibernated too often this season but came alive in recent weeks, the weekend frustrations notwithstanding — though those losses also were on All-Star starters Logan Webb and Robbie Ray and their untimely struggles against a highly potent Dodger lineup.
When reports began circulating Sunday night (initially by the San Francisco Chronicle) that Eldridge is coming, Giants fans buzzed with excitement. So did the team’s marketing and ticket departments. More importantly, the folks in baseball operations, led by Posey, concluded this was the right time and right circumstance to put their No. 1 prospect on display.
It would have been nice if the Giants had a premier pitching prospect ready to go, too. The rotation is thin beyond Webb, Ray, and Justin Verlander, and the starters for the first two games in Arizona are Kai-Wei Teng and “TBA.” Eldridge no longer is a two-way player, so he can’t help on this front, but he certainly could spark the lineup while positioned alongside Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman.
For where the Giants are now, for how Posey sees the world, that’s plenty good enough.