SAN FRANCISCO — Delayed by a wrist damage to begin the season, Bryce Eldridge didn’t waste any time making up for misplaced time.
The Giants’ 20-year-old prime prospect made his season debut for Double-A Richmond on Tuesday and homered in his first at-bat. Batting cleanup, the 6-foot-7 first baseman led off the second inning by utilizing his left-handed swing to deposit a low-and-away breaking ball over the right-center area wall.
“All right, well, get him here now,” supervisor Bob Melvin joked earlier than the big-league membership hosted the Milwaukee Brewers.
Eldridge’s dwelling run occurred moments earlier than the supervisor took his seat within the dugout for his pregame media session, and Melvin watched it for the primary time on a reporter’s telephone. He seemed up earlier than the spotlight was over. “I don’t need to see where it landed,” he mentioned.
The ball simply cleared the wall and landed within the Flying Squirrels’ bullpen, however Melvin is already acquainted with the prodigious energy of the membership’s 2022 first-round draft decide. Invited to major-league spring coaching for the primary time this yr, Eldridge made the same first impression, homering in his second at-bat.
Eldridge, nevertheless, was slowed after that by irritation in his wrist, which resulted in him remaining in Arizona for extending spring coaching.
It wasn’t a on condition that Eldridge would start the season at Double-A after he superior by means of 4 ranges in 2024 and ended the yr at Triple-A Sacramento. When the common season was over, he was assigned to the Arizona Fall League however was shut down after 10 video games.
Eldridge hit .291/.374/.516 with 23 dwelling runs in 446 at-bats throughout all ranges in 2024 however solely reached Richmond in the course of the last month of the season, taking part in all however 15 of his 116 video games for Single-A San Jose and Excessive-A Eugene.
So far as when he might arrive in San Francisco, Melvin mentioned, “We’ll take a hard look at him and hope he gets off to a good start, does his thing and see where it goes from there.” Moments later, the supervisor watched the clip of Eldridge going deep. Not a nasty begin.
“Let’s see how his second at-bat goes,” Melvin cracked.
Thought of the No. 11 prospect within the sport by Baseball America and No. 22 by MLB.com, Eldridge’s arrival has been extremely anticipated ever because the ball jumped off his bat throughout his rookie league debut months after the Giants drafted him sixteenth total as a prep two-way participant.
The Giants have gotten among the least manufacturing within the majors out of first base up to now this season, however Melvin expressed confidence that LaMonte Wade Jr. would flip it round. Their first basemen have been the sixth-least precious of any staff, led by Wade, who entered Tuesday batting .103 with a .473 OPS.
The designated hitter spot is extra settled, with Wilmer Flores among the many league leaders in dwelling runs (7) and RBIs (24).
“I do believe LaMonte’s going to pick it up, and we’ve gotten good production out of Flo,” Melvin mentioned. “(Eldridge) is going to have to perform to get here, and that’s something Buster (Posey, the president of baseball operations) has stated.”
The task for Eldridge is threefold: Get extra seasoning within the higher ranges of the minor leagues, initially. Enhance his protection at first base, the place he solely started to play within the execs and continues to be thought-about a under common fielder. And minimize down on his strikeouts after whiffing at a 25% fee in 2024.
“I think he’s going to surprise some people with his hit ability; he’s got a really short swing,” Randy Winn, the Giants’ director of participant growth, mentioned final month of the expectations for the membership’s prime prospect this yr. “I simply need him to proceed to enhance in all aspects of the sport. The psychological facet of it, as properly.
“How do you deal with failure? How do you hit in certain situations? How do you hit if somebody is pitching around you? How do you hit if you’re not feeling great? Those are all the things that he’s got to learn, but you can only learn that with more reps.”
Initially Revealed: April 22, 2025 at 5:41 PM PDT
