{"id":666457,"date":"2026-04-06T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666457\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T14:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:03:20","slug":"why-bryce-eldridge-should-already-be-in-the-sf-giants-lineup-not-wasted-in-triple-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/666457\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bryce Eldridge Should Already Be In the SF Giants Lineup, Not Wasted in Triple-A"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Bryce Eldridge was supposed to be the future of the San Francisco Giants<\/a>. Rated by MLB Pipelin<\/a> as the 22nd-best prospect in baseball, Eldridge is hailed as one of the best first basemen in the minor leagues. He hit for an .836 OPS in Triple-A Sacramento and earned a call-up to the major leagues in September. So what is he doing back in Triple-A to open the 2026 season?<\/p>\n

Part of the reason why Eldridge is wasting away in Triple-A is that the Giants\u2019 roster is a mess. The Giants essentially are carrying three third basemen on the roster: Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers, and Casey Schmitt. Because Chapman is the best defender, he is the third baseman, which has shifted Schmitt to play first base and Devers into the DH slot. That blocks Eldridge at his natural position.<\/p>\n

Related: MLB Power Rankings Week 1, See Where SF Giants Land<\/a><\/p>\n

The Giants also signed Luis Arraez last offseason and are asking him to play second base. Arraez fits better defensively at first base, but Devers has first base covered, forcing Arraez to play second base, where he\u2019s rated as one of the worst players in baseball defensively.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the 28-year-old career minor leaguer Jerar Encarnacion, who is listed as a potential DH on the depth chart (though he hasn\u2019t started a game as the DH yet this season). He\u2019s a first baseman and right fielder, also blocking Eldridge on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, between Devers, Schmitt, Encarnacion, and Arraez, it\u2019s hard to see how Eldridge would get any playing time. <\/p>\n

Why the Giants Must Prioritize the Better Player <\/p>\n

When you look a little deeper, however, it\u2019s not hard to see what the Giants\u2019 answer should be. Schmitt has a career 0.4 bWAR and an 88 OPS+. These are hardly numbers that scream \u201ckeep this man in the lineup at all costs.\u201d Last year, he hit for a perfectly league-average 100 OPS+. Schmitt is also not a first baseman; he is a utility infielder being asked to play the position because the best first baseman on the team (Arraez) is at second, Devers is DH\u2019ing, and Schmitt\u2019s natural position of third base is blocked by a Gold Glover (Chapman).<\/p>\n

Obviously, Eldridge did not help himself in his ten-game MLB audition last year, when he slashed .107\/.297\/.179. However, the important thing to keep in mind is that it was a ten-game audition in September, when the entire Giants offense was slumping. It was not exactly the best moment to call up a 20-year-old rookie.<\/p>\n

Eldridge is a year older now, and he has nothing more to prove at the Triple-A level. San Francisco can continue to start utility men like Schmitt and Encarnacion at first base if they want league-average production. Or they could call up Eldridge, who offers much more upside and needs to develop at a big-league level.<\/p>\n

Playing it safe and keeping Schmitt in the lineup over Eldridge is not going to help the Giants. In the NL West<\/a>, playing it safe is the wrong strategy. Playing it safe is not going to get San Francisco past the Dodgers. Playing it safe is what keeps the Giants stuck as a .500 team for four years in a row. <\/p>\n

If Eldridge comes up and struggles, it\u2019s nice to know that the Giants have a guy like Schmitt who can play first base when needed. But San Francisco needs to give its top prospect a chance, and soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, Bryce Eldridge was supposed to be the future of the San Francisco Giants. Rated by MLB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-666457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-giants","13":"tag-sanfrancisco","14":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-giants","17":"tag-sfgiants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116358140813627889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}