SF Giants Promote Bryce Eldridge to AAA; When Could He Hit MLB?

SAN FRANCISCO — When the Giants broke camp this spring, the only expectations they had for their late No. 1 overall draft pick in his first full season of professional baseball were to “get him playing, get him up to speed and get him adjusted,” farm director Kyle Haines said in March.

It’s safe to say that Bryce Eldridge has exceeded those expectations and placed himself on another pedestal in terms of prospect status.

Eldridge, who will be 19 for two months, will finish the season at a major league level, in Triple-A Sacramento, where he was promoted Saturday. In just over a year since being drafted 16th overall out of Madison High School in Vienna, Va., Eldridge has bounced around four minor league levels, from Single-A San Jose to High-A Eugene, a brief return home to Double-A Richmond and now, for the final week of the minor league season, with the River Cats.

With such a rapid rise, could the teenager be selected by San Francisco by the end of the season?

“I’ve never heard that,” manager Bob Melvin said with a laugh before Saturday’s game against the Padres. “I mean, it’s been a pretty quick rise. I don’t know if it’s going to be that quick.”

Melvin is mostly focused on the day-to-day machinations of the major league team. Still, he can understand why the Giants wouldn’t want to add another stop to Eldridge’s itinerary, as tempting as it might be. Aside from the fact that Eldridge spent all nine games in Double-A, there’s no reason to get ahead of his service time while occupying a 40-man roster spot that could be used to protect another Rule 5 draft prospect this winter.

There is one more thing the Giants will add to Eldridge’s to-do list, though. When he turns 20 on Oct. 20, he’ll be playing for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League. It’s not exactly a gap year after graduating high school.

“We know these high school students are going to have ups and downs,” Haines said this spring. “It’s pretty rare that they don’t.”

So far, Eldridge seems to be the exception to the rule, and it’s hard not to imagine his 6-foot-10 left-handed swing will be sending balls to McCovey Cove sooner rather than later. Even in his first stint in San Jose, Eldridge was two years younger than the average pitcher, and the gap has only widened as he climbed the minor league ladder.

He spent 51 games with San Jose, hitting 10 home runs with a .263 batting average and an .801 OPS, and managed to not only hit a roadblock after his promotion to Eugene but also take his game to another level. He had 12 homers in 48 games and showed increased maturity in his approach, drawing 35 walks and 52 strikeouts in 215 plate appearances after striking out 61 times with 17 walks in 229 at-bats in San Jose.

Last week, Eldridge hit his first home run at Double-A Richmond, and after hitting .270 with a .785 OPS in nine games, he was already on his way to Triple-A.

“I think it shows what the organization thinks of him and what he’s willing to do,” Melvin said. “You see some guys getting to the big leagues a little quicker right now. That kid from Milwaukee (Jackson Chourio). It’s not like they don’t think he can get there. It’s only going to be a short time here at the end, but I think just giving him a taste of Triple-A will be big for him.”