The excitement continues.
The actual MLB season may be getting less and less exciting for the San Francisco Giants, but they’re certainly finding ways to generate excitement elsewhere in the franchise. And on Friday, that meant some exciting news involving their top prospect, as ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reported that first baseman Bryce Eldridge will be promoted from AA Richmond to AAA Sacramento.
After playing 9 games in Double-A, the Giants are promoting top prospect 1B Bryce Eldridge to Triple-A, per source.
Here’s what he looked like last spring as a high schooler, before the Giants made him the 16th overall pick.
Eldridge will be 19 years old for another month. https://t.co/6ntUbX97zw
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) September 14, 2024
Richmond’s season ends on Sunday, but it looks like the Giants aren’t even waiting until then to promote Eldridge. For the first time since his latest promotion, Eldridge wasn’t in the lineup for Richmond’s game on Friday night, which suggests that he’s en route to Texas, where Sacramento is wrapping up their penultimate series of the season.
If he’s able to make it into the River Cats’ lineup on Saturday, then Eldridge will get eight games in AAA before the season ends.
Eldridge has had the clear-cut best season of any Giants prospect, and one of the best in all of the Minors. The 2023 first-round pick — who is still just 19 years old — began the year in Low-A San Jose, where he hit fairly well before a promotion. He went on the tear of all tears in High-A Eugene before getting promoted to Richmond 10 days ago, and he’s looked more than comfortable there.
Across the three levels, Eldridge is hitting .294/.376/.535 with an organization-leading 23 home runs. His season-long wRC+ of 144 is 39th out of 1,055 Minor League prospects with at least 300 plate appearances this year, and the 38 names ahead of him are all either significantly older than he is, or playing at lower levels.
And as a result, Eldridge has cemented himself as one of the best prospects in baseball, and the Giants best chance at developing into their next homegrown star. In Sacramento, he’ll be nearly eight years younger than the average hitter in the Pacific Coast League.
In confirming McDaniel’s report, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly noted that the Giants are intending to send Eldridge to the Arizona Fall League next month.
Confirming this report. The Double-A season ends on Sunday and the Giants wanted to get Eldridge one more week of at-bats at Sacramento. It’s been a heck of a rise for the 19-year old power hitter, who is expected to head to the Arizona Fall League after the season. https://t.co/STGCK1elcI
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) September 14, 2024
If Eldridge plays well in his week with Sacramento, and if he plays well in Arizona, and if he plays well in Spring Training, well … while not the most likely scenario, I don’t think we can rule out the possibility that he could make the Opening Day lineup.
The quick promotion after just nine games is somewhat in line with recent development choices from the organization. One constant among their best hitting prospects is that they simply don’t stay in AA long, even though many stay in High-A for a whole year. Eldridge played in just nine games with Richmond which is fairly in line with other top position players: Patrick Bailey spent 14 games with the Flying Squirrels; Casey Schmitt 29 games; Luis Matos 31 games; Wade Meckler 39 games; Grant McCray 50 games; and Marco Luciano 56 games.
If you’re in the Sacramento area, might I suggest getting tickets to next week’s series against Sugar Land. It might be your last chance to see Eldridge without having to pay Oracle Park prices.