{"id":424730,"date":"2026-01-20T04:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T04:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/424730\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T04:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T04:39:07","slug":"giants-notes-eldridge-schmitt-hernandez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/424730\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants Notes: Eldridge, Schmitt, Hernandez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giants rookie first baseman\u00a0Bryce Eldridge<\/a> was the subject of some early-offseason trade speculation. San Francisco entered the winter seeking pitching but didn\u2019t appear poised to spend at the top of the free agent market. That led to chatter about Eldridge being included in a trade package for a controllable starter with a top-of-the-rotation ceiling (e.g. MacKenzie Gore<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That kind of move has always seemed like a long shot, as position player prospects of Eldridge\u2019s caliber rarely get moved. The 21-year-old has taken the rumors in stride, saying over the weekend that he has worked to ignore the speculation. \u201cI try not to get too wrapped up in anything going on. \u2026 I don\u2019t know how far those talks got,\u201d Eldridge said at Giants FanFest (link via Maria Guardado of MLB.com<\/a>). \u201cBut I want to be here. I want to play for this team. I don\u2019t plan on leaving here anytime soon. I hope they don\u2019t plan on making me leave anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 16th overall pick in the 2023 draft, Eldridge spent most of last year between the top two minor league levels. He hit 25 homers while combining for a .260\/.333\/.510 batting line across 433 plate appearances. The 6\u20197\u2033 Eldridge struck out in more than 29% of his trips to the plate but was an above-average hitter at both minor league stops at age 20. The Giants called him up in the middle of September. He\u2019s not a lock to break camp because of the strikeout questions, yet they\u2019ll surely expect him to play a big role over the course of the season.<\/p>\n

Eldridge underwent postseason surgery to address a bone spur in his left wrist. He said he\u2019s essentially at full strength, noting that he\u2019s in the final stages of his hitting program. Eldridge should enter camp healthy as he battles for the starting first base\/designated hitter job in what would be a split between the two positions with Rafael Devers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also uncertainty at the other position on the right side of the infield. The Giants are reportedly making a push<\/a> for second baseman, and they\u2019ve been linked to Brendan Donovan<\/a> and to Stanford product Nico Hoerner<\/a> (a longer shot to move). If they don\u2019t land a big-ticket upgrade, the starting job would fall to\u00a0Casey Schmitt<\/a>. He took over from the struggling Tyler Fitzgerald<\/a> midseason and turned in a league average .237\/.305\/.401 line in 95 games.<\/p>\n

Schmitt is also working back from left wrist surgery \u2014 a carpal boss<\/a> removal, in his case. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> relays that the righty-hitting infielder resumed hitting off a tee last week. He might be a little behind schedule in March but seems to be well on track for Opening Day. Schmitt would vie for his first career Opening Day start if he\u2019s healthy and the Giants don\u2019t come away with a marquee trade pickup.<\/p>\n

If they do land someone like Donovan, Schmitt would probably work as a multi-positional infielder off the bench. He\u2019s a natural third baseman and has some shortstop experience, but there aren\u2019t many reps available in a left side infield featuring\u00a0Matt Chapman<\/a> and\u00a0Willy Adames<\/a>. Slusser reports that the Giants have gotten calls from other teams about Schmitt in the two years since they signed Chapman, but his versatility and remaining minor league option mean they\u2019re not under any pressure to deal him.<\/p>\n

While Giants fans hope for some kind of big swing to improve the MLB roster, they made a notable move on the minor league side last week. San Francisco officially signed Venezuelan infield prospect\u00a0Luis Hern\u00e1ndez on January 15. His $5MM signing bonus was the biggest for any player in this year\u2019s international period.<\/p>\n

MLB Pipeline<\/a> also ranked the right-handed hitter as the best prospect in the class on talent, praising his polish and all-around skillset. Ben Badler of Baseball America<\/a> writes that many scouts consider Hern\u00e1ndez the top amateur prospect though BA itself doesn\u2019t rank international signees. Hern\u00e1ndez, who turned 17 last month, isn\u2019t the biggest player at 5\u201910\u201d and certainly won\u2019t be an MLB factor for years but represents an intriguing add for the player development department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giants rookie first baseman\u00a0Bryce Eldridge was the subject of some early-offseason trade speculation. San Francisco entered the winter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,82338,81602,223210,591,85],"class_list":["post-424730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bryce-eldridge","tag-casey-schmitt","tag-luis-hernandez-b-2008","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}