How Buster Posey sees Giants infield shaking out after Bryce Eldridge promotion

SAN FRANCISCO — When the Giants optioned Bryce Eldridge to Triple-A late in the spring, the top prospect was disappointed but understood, vowing to do what was needed to show that he belonged in the big leagues early in the 2026 season. There were a lot of different ways things could have gone over the next few weeks and months, but the Giants probably never imagined dealing with this exact situation.Eldridge arrived Monday to a clubhouse that desperately needed offensive help, but did not actually need a designated hitter, the position he is likely to play most often as a rookie. Casey Schmitt has been the team’s best hitter, and given that he’s a former top pick himself and is only 27, the Giants have a lot of reasons to make sure they give this breakout a full chance to bloom.Both were in the lineup Monday, and all indications were that it’s likely to be that way for the foreseeable future. That creates a tricky puzzle for first-year manager Tony Vitello, and on Monday, he had to sit slumping third baseman Matt Chapman. Other veterans will deal with the same thing, president of baseball operations Buster Posey said in an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area. “That’s how we envision it. Casey has been playing well and I don’t think he should be punished because others have not been playing well,” Posey said. “It’s going to be a little bit of mixing and matching and trying to get some matchups that are favorable for us with Casey in there, and he’s shown in the past that he can move around and play some different positions. Right now that’s how I see it transpiring.”On Monday, that meant a rare day off for a healthy Chapman. Later this week, it could be Rafael Devers (.572 OPS) who is told he’s sitting, or shortstop Willy Adames (.579 OPS). Second baseman Luis Arráez has been the most productive of the veterans, but there could be some matchups in the near future that favor Schmitt, who was primarily a second baseman last year. It’s a hell of a challenge for Vitello, who has a lot on his plate at the moment. He is known for his interpersonal skills and has good relationships with the team’s leaders, but if Schmitt keeps hitting, Vitello will have to have some uncomfortable conversations with the team’s three highest-paid position players. “You can call it ego or pride or whatever — it’s guys (who are) just eager to get out there to find the best versions of themselves,” Vitello said Monday. “There’s going to be days where they’re not playing, but the benefit of that is that when they are playing they’re not going to have any excuses — and not that they have — but they’re going to be fresh of mind and fresh of body.”The three struggling veterans don’t have much of a counterargument right now. The Giants are seven games under .500, and there needs to be some urgency to get the ship back on track and make sure the season isn’t lost in May, no matter what that entails. The hope, though, is that the conversations are soon tricky for another reason. The staff still has faith that much better days are ahead for Devers, Adames and Chapman, and if they get hot, Vitello will find other ways to mix up the playing time. He seemed on Monday to soft-launch the idea of Schmitt playing some corner outfield, even though the lifelong infielder hasn’t done it since his sophomore year of high school.“There’s no reason as an athlete (that) he can’t do that, but we need to do it intelligently,” Vitello said. Schmitt said he took some fly balls last year — but did so with a left-hander’s glove because he had gotten hit by a pitch and was just messing around during BP. His last game experience in the outfield came a decade ago, but he said multiple times after Monday’s game — which included his fifth homer — that he’s “up for whatever.”“I’ve always said that however I can get in there, that’s how I want to get in there,” he said. Schmitt played his natural position Monday as part of what Vitello referred to as a “fresh start” for the lineup, which also included Eldridge and call-up Jesús Rodríguez. Schmitt batted second; Devers and Adames, the team’s two most powerful hitters, were fifth and sixth.While this is a challenging issue for Vitello to sort out, he does have one advantage. His boss is a former MVP who is headed for the Hall of Fame, and he has good relationships with the veterans on the team. Posey was the one who made the call to add Eldridge, which would lead to a decrease in playing time for the veterans. They might not like it, but this is one time when it’s particularly helpful that the man making the decisions has been through all of this himself.“It’s challenging because you appreciate (that) they all want to be in there every day, but at the same time, I got to live it and sometimes when you’re off, a little bit of a reset is a good thing,” Posey said.Posey is hopeful this is just a temporary reset, and he has a lot riding on that. He was instrumental in convincing Chapman to sign a long-term extension, and then he signed Adames and traded for Devers. This is his vision for the lineup, and it needs to get back on track.“In all reality, we’re going to need our veteran players that hit in the middle of the order to help lead us out of this,” he said. “We’re going to have to have them be productive for us to get out of this funk that we’re in.”Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

How Buster Posey sees Giants infield shaking out after Bryce Eldridge promotion

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