Minor League roundup, Sept. 17: Meckler shines, Eldridge makes home debut

Yesterdays’ action on the farm

Only one of the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates is still playing baseball, so these final MiLB roundups are finally becoming a readable length! You no longer need to allot 45 minutes to read through them!

Let’s get into the lone action of the day.

Link to the 2024 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

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AAA Sacramento (78-67)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Astros) 6-3
Box score

This game was supposed to be all about first baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 3 CPL), who was making his home debut for Sacramento, in his 3rd AAA game. But before he even got a chance to step in the batter’s box, the attention was stolen by center fielder Wade Meckler (No. 11 CPL), who led off the 1st inning with a solo home run to center field.

Meckler wasn’t done, either. That was his only hit, but he finished the day 1-3 with both a walk and a stolen base.

I’ve said this a few times, and I’ll say it again: I have no idea what to make of his season. His numbers since getting back to AAA following a lengthy injury absence and rehab assignment are pretty good, albeit nowhere near what they were last year, as he has an .876 OPS and a 116 wRC+ with the River Cats in 2024.

But those numbers are propped up in large part by a huge boost in power. When Meckler made it back to Sacramento this year, he had hit 8 career home runs in 714 plate appearances across all levels. And since returning to Sacramento, he’s already hit 7 dingers in just 180 plate appearances.

Adding power is always a good thing, but it’s hard to view that as anything other than variance and park factors, because Meckler’s swing and body just aren’t built for home runs. So while it’s great to see him put up good numbers, it does feel like in needs to be contextualized for the home runs … even though it’s very weird to dock a player for doing the most valuable thing in baseball.

Ultimately, Meckler’s batting average, on-base percentage, and walk rate are substantially down this year, and it’s hard to imagine that increase in power (he has a higher isolated slugging percentage than any player with at least 100 plate appearances for Sacramento this year other than Heliot Ramos and Jerar Encarnación) continuing to hold things up.

It will be a fascinating winter and 2025 for Meckler, who is fairly clearly behind not just Ramos and Encarnación (should the Giants keep him) but also Grant McCray and Luis Matos on the outfield depth chart. He’s still a good and exciting prospect, but you’ve got to think the Giants are regretting their decision to add him to the 40-man roster last year, so far ahead of his potential Rule 5 protection date.

Moving on, because we should talk about Eldridge! He singled in his 1st at-bat in Sacramento, and ended the day 1-3 with a walk and a strikeout.

He hasn’t been electric yet in 3 games with the River Cats, but he’s hit safely in all 3 games (while walking in 2 of them), and his at-bats simply look fantastic. Usually players look a bit overmatched when they move up a level, and Eldridge — who is 19 and has moved up a level 3 times this year — simply does not. He looks so comfortable and in control.

In the batter’s box, that is. There’s still work to do defensively, as he dropped a popup on the pitcher’s mound, though a heady play by third baseman David Villar spared Eldridge of an error. He did make a nice pick at first base, though, returning the favor on a poor Villar throw.

LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 4 CPL) took the mound for presumably his penultimate start of the year … he’s lined up to pitch in Sunday’s season finale as well. Whisenhunt pitched 5 innings in this one and gave up just 4 hits, 2 runs, and 1 earned run, though he did walk 3 batters, as that continues to be a bit of a weak spot for him. But it’s easier to overlook walk issues when you have a lot of strikeouts, and Whisenhunt tallied 6 of them.

Among 55 Pacific Coast League pitchers with at least 10 starts this year, Whisenhunt is now 4th in strikeouts per 9 innings with 11.40, trailing only a pair of top-10 picks in Jack Leiter and Reid Detmers … as well as his teammate, Spencer Howard. But his 4.74 walks per 9 innings are just 45th out of those 55, leading to an ERA (5.66) that’s 32nd, but an FIP (4.89) that’s 13th.

Now that he has a full season of AAA seasoning under his belt, we can start to put the expectations that many unfairly had on him in 2024 back on him for 2025. Hopefully it’s a huge year for the 2022 2nd-round pick.

LHP Kolton Ingram had another strong relief appearances, tossing 2 shutout innings with 2 strikeouts, though he allowed 3 baserunners. The Giants will surely try to retain Ingram as depth for next year’s team, as he’s ended the season on a tear: in his last 5 games, he’s pitched 6.1 innings and allowed just 1 hit, 4 walks, and 0 runs, while striking out 10 batters.

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Home run tracker

AAA Wade Meckler (8 total, 7 in AAA)

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Wednesday schedule

Sacramento: vs. Sugar Land, 12:05 p.m. PT
Richmond: Season over
Eugene: Season over
San Jose: Season over