LOS ANGELES — Bryce Eldridge, lower than per week into his major-league profession, stays in quest of his first hit. That milestone, amongst others, ought to are available due time. Whereas nonetheless batting .000, Eldridge has proven small glimpses of the promise that made him one in all baseball’s high prospects.
“His at-bats have been good,” mentioned supervisor Bob Melvin of the Giants’ high prospect. “We’d love for him to get his first hit and get that out of the way, but he has not looked overmatched.”
Eldridge has struck out in 5 of his 10 plate appearances getting into Friday, his solely time reaching base to this point being a stroll in Wednesday’s win towards the Diamondbacks. Of the 4 occasions he’s put the ball in play, he’s generated exit velocities of 105.9 mph, 105.2 mph, 102.4 mph and 99.0 mph. Baseball Savant categorizes balls in play at 95 mph or quicker as arduous hit.
Eldridge gained’t proceed to publish a mean exit velocity of 103.1 mph — Oneil Cruz leads the league at 95.7 mph — however it’s been a peek at Eldridge’s elite uncooked energy. To have a look at a a lot bigger pattern, Eldridge posted elite batted-ball knowledge with Triple-A Sacramento, the place he was within the ninety fifth percentile or higher in barrel fee (ninety fifth), common exit velocity (97th) and hard-hit fee (98th) per Prospect Savant.
In his third profession plate look, Eldridge inside-outed a four-seam fastball from the Diamondbacks’ Taylor Rashi. At 407 toes, Eldridge’s line drive would’ve been a house run in 23 of 30 ballparks. Sadly for Eldridge, he was enjoying in one of many seven stadiums the place it wouldn’t clear the fences. Arizona middle fielder Jorge Barrosa tracked it down, and Eldridge’s seek for his first hit continued.
There was additionally Thursday, when Eldridge had his first plate look towards a left-handed pitcher when he stepped to the plate to face the Dodgers’ Jack Dreyer. With the depend at 2-2, Dreyer elevated a slider that Eldridge smashed — proper into the awaiting glove of proper fielder Teoscar Hernández.
Equally as spectacular as these small shows of pop has been Eldridge’s potential to withstand pitches out of the zone.
Eldridge’s first two at-bats within the majors got here towards right-hander Zac Gallen, a one-time All-Star with an assortment of secondaries. Gallen’s plan towards Eldridge was easy: spam him with changeups. Gallen did get Eldridge to whiff on three pitches, however the rookie had some spectacular takes on borderline changeups that simply missed the zone.
“I think that’s a good start facing a guy like him,” Eldridge mentioned after his major-league debut. “I had fun. He had a good plan against me, and it as fun to get to face him and I felt like I belonged. I feel like I competed and did my best.”
Mentioned Melvin after Eldridge’s debut: “Too bad he didn’t get the one hit there but certainly he didn’t look like he was overmatched. Didn’t look nervous. I’m sure there were some nerves there, but he looks pretty hitterish at the plate.”
Given Eldridge’s offensive profile, there’ll probably all the time be a good quantity of strikeouts and whiffs in his recreation. Over 1,082 video games within the minors, Eldridge had a strikeout fee of 27.1 %, partially the product of an equally excessive whiff fee. With Triple-A Sacramento, Eldridge had a whiff fee of 33.7 % per Prospect Savant, putting him within the twenty first percentile.
Strikeout charges and whiff charges usually stay constant all through a participant’s profession. With uncommon exceptions, a excessive strikeout/whiff participant not often evolves right into a low strikeout/whiff participant. But when Eldridge constantly faucets into his energy, the Giants will be capable to reside with the swings and misses.
“There’s probably going to be some swing and miss but he’s also going to make some really loud contact as well,” mentioned president of baseball operations Buster Posey, who started his profession going 2-for-17.
Nearly all of Eldridge’s plate appearances for the rest of the season shall be towards right-handers, not left-handers. All three of Eldridge’s begins have been at designated hitter — Melvin mentioned Eldridge might get a take a look at first base quickly — on days the place a right-handed pitcher began.
When left-hander Anthony Banda entered for the eighth inning on Thursday, Melvin substituted Eldridge for Wilmer Flores. When Clayton Kershaw made the ultimate common season begin of profession on Friday, Eldridge was relegated to watching from the first-base dugout as an alternative of testing himself towards the longer term Corridor of Famer.
Eldridge struggled towards lefties within the minors final season, posting a .211/.272/.316 slash line with three house runs over 114 at-bats. This season, against this, Eldridge had a .267/.327/.489 line with 4 house runs over 90 at-bats towards left-handers within the minors.
Melvin mentioned Flores, who has a profession .787 OPS towards left-handers, goes to play towards lefties for now. Subsequent season, Eldridge will probably get way more alternatives to face same-sided pitchers.
The pattern is extremely small, however Eldridge has proven himself able to holding his personal towards major-league pitching. Over the following week, he’ll have his alternatives to point out himself able to damaging major-league pitching.
Price noting
Trevor McDonald will begin for the Giants on Sunday.
Carson Whisenhunt (again pressure) might pitch through the Giants’ remaining homestand of the season after pitching 1 2/3 innings on Tuesday in a rehab begin.
Initially Printed: September 20, 2025 at 5:53 PM PDT
