What Giants want to see from top prospect Bryce Eldridge back in Triple-A

SAN FRANCISCO — Even two decades ago, before the boom of analytics, Buster Posey would have been a bit of an outlier in an MLB front office. These days, when most are filled with recent Ivy League grads, a former MVP who now serves as a president of baseball operations is practically a unicorn.Posey’s background put him in a fascinating spot recently when it came time to make the biggest decision of the Giants spring. Like Bryce Eldridge, Posey was once a first-round pick and top prospect who quickly earned a September cup of coffee. Like Posey in 2010, Eldridge was disappointed when he found that he wouldn’t break camp with the team.The decision was not Posey’s alone, but the buck stops with him, and he decided that Eldridge should at least initially follow the same path he did. Asked a few days later about what he wanted for Eldridge, Posey said it was simple. “Just play baseball,” he said. Posey, Zack Minasian, Randy Winn and the rest in the front office are determined to give their best prospects a bit more time to develop after years of watching Giants minor leaguers get rushed and flame out. Eldridge has fewer than 1,000 minor-league at-bats and his 2026 debut was just his 75th game in Triple-A. It’s not where he hoped to start the season, but last week, before driving north, he said he understands. “Obviously the sooner (I’m back) the better. I want to make an impact here but I’m not going to put that pressure on myself to try and rush it,” he said. “I’ve had some good talks with people recently and the worst thing I can do is try and rush it … I’m young, I’ve got plenty of time and I’m going to be around this game for a long time hopefully.“Whenever my time is called — in two weeks or two months or in September — I’m ready to go, but I’m going to try and win some games in Sacramento and keep getting better.”That’s exactly what Eldridge did Sunday in the third Triple-A game of the season. With one out in the ninth and the River Cats down by a run, he pulled a game-tying single into right field. Sacramento went on to win in the 11th. Overall, Eldridge was 3-for-10 over the weekend with four walks and five strikeouts. Had the Giants wanted to keep Eldridge, it would have been an easy case to make. He’s only 21, but he had good at-bats for most of the spring, including against Paul Skenes in the Team USA scrimmage. Eldridge rarely looks overwhelmed, and he has the power to flip a game with one swing. He showed that when the team returned to California, homering in exhibitions in Sacramento and at Oracle Park on back-to-back nights. The latter was Eldridge’s first in a big-league ballpark and easily cleared the wall in left during a night game, no easy feat even for right-handed hitters. But the Giants already had made a decision. When they sent Eldridge down, he had one homer in 50 spring plate appearances with 19 strikeouts. “I wasn’t happy with it,” Eldridge said of his spring. “I can’t be mad about any decisions that were made because I quite honestly just wasn’t good enough. That’s just how it is. I’m going to have to keep dealing with it and keep working hard and keep putting my head down and working. “I know I have to be better, I know I have to limit the strikeouts, that’s all part of it for especially a young kid. They’re not going to stick a young kid up there who is going up there and striking out.”Posey said he thought Eldridge “got a little bit technical and mechanical in spring training.” Eldridge said he wasn’t moving the way he wanted to in the box, in large part because he didn’t hit nearly the entire offseason after having wrist surgery. “It was hard mentally going into it,” he said. “You’re not fully trusting how many swings you’ve taken in the offseason and feel you’re behind there. I was breaking up scar tissue early on when swinging and maybe made some moves I’m not normally making to try to protect it.”When Eldridge got to Sacramento, he had a talk with Winn, a longtime big leaguer who now is in charge of player development for the organization. Winn reminded him to make sure he’s seeing the ball well. His physical tools will take over from there. “That’s the most important thing is to see the ball, because he’s such a physical force,” Posey said. “For a 21-year-old, his skill set is already very, very refined as a hitter. So I think as much as anything, it’s about figuring out how you compete in certain moments, whether you have to raise the energy level, bring the energy level down a little bit. And we saw between the Sacramento game and then the first game here, he got some really good swings off. “Bryce has a bright future in front of him, and I think what he’s got going for him the most is his belief and his own ability, but also, from what I can tell, his understanding of changes that he needs to make to become the best player he can be.”Posey said he doesn’t have any sort of timeline for a promotion, noting that the staff will monitor Eldridge’s work in Triple-A and make the call when it feels right. He ultimately had to wait until the end of May in 2010 to get his own second promotion, but everything worked out well for both the player and the team.Posey went down as one of the best players in franchise history and Eldridge has made no secret of the fact that he wants his name to be remembered in a similar way one day. That makes it a bit more understandable that the Giants chose caution.This is a development path they can’t mess up, especially on the heels of watching guys like Marco Luciano and Luis Matos fail to live up to expectations. They decided Eldridge needs more time in the minors, and he said he will make the most of it. “I’m just excited to have an opportunity to play baseball — that’s the truth,” he said. “I get to play baseball and I get to play professional baseball and that’s what I’ve always dreamed of doing. I’m 21 years old. I’m in, in my opinion, a good spot right now, regardless of if I’m in Triple-A or here. “Whenever they feel like it’s my time, I’ll always be ready. I’ll always have that mentality, and will always be ready to play baseball, no matter what time of year it is.”Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

What Giants want to see from top prospect Bryce Eldridge back in Triple-A

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