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Schmitt can bounce around the infield and DH, so he can spell players, but the Giants\u2019 high-priced infield\u00a0\u2014 Matt Chapman, Willy Adames and three-time batting champ Luis Arraez, among the league leaders in average\u00a0\u2014 aren\u2019t going to take well to sitting once a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Where does this leave Eldridge? \u00a0The Giants had indicated they didn\u2019t want to bring up their best prospects unless there was consistent playing time for them. In this case, it appears that regular pinch-hit appearances count for that, and the days that Schmitt starts at first, Eldridge can pinch-hit and then play first, as he did Sunday. Monday, he was in the on-deck circle ready to hit for Schmitt in the ninth when the inning ended; Vitello said after the game that Eldridge will start Tuesday’s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were to look at it from a development scope, I think like last game, you pop in two at-bats with a lot on the line, those might be worth four regular at-bats in a game, if you can make that argument,\u201d Vitello said, adding that with mixing in some starts at DH and first base, \u201cthe development part is not going to be slowed at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vitello said that Eldridge is likely to get one start at DH during the Giants\u2019 four-game series at Dodger Stadium, and president of baseball operations Buster Posey said via text, \u201cWe\u2019re looking for every opportunity we think makes the most sense to have him in the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eldridge is OK with all of this. There are zero young players who would prefer playing every day at Triple-A over getting a handful of starts a week plus regular pinch-hitting duty at the big-league level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose aren\u2019t my decisions,\u201d Eldridge\u00a0said before Monday\u2019s game. \u201cI\u2019m here to do my job, and I\u2019m here to contribute to the team however I can, whatever the situation is, whether I\u2019m starting or coming off the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Despite his age, Eldridge is remarkably mature and savvy. If a young player can handle what\u2019s generally considered a very tricky role for a rookie, in particular, it\u2019s Eldridge, and he said he\u2019s working on learning how to be as effective as possible off the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have confidence in myself in any situation,\u201d Eldridge said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the easiest thing to do, but have confidence in my abilities to start or to come off the bench, have a big at-bat at whatever point in the game. Definitely something I\u2019ve got to figure out is a routine for pinch-hitting\u00a0\u2014 I feel like I took too many swings throughout (Sunday\u2019s) game, because I don\u2019t know when to be ready. It\u2019s just something I\u2019m working on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants did not have a big left-handed threat on the bench this year until Eldridge\u2019s arrival, so even though the hope always would be to get a top prospect everyday play, if that\u2019s not entirely possible, he\u2019s at the very least filling a very necessary hole.<\/p>\n
Asked to define Eldridge\u2019s role, Vitello said, \u201cA threat. I think the balance that we lacked prior (in not having) even just a lefty off the bench, but also the flexibility to sit a guy at first base or sit a guy at a certain spot. I mean, Casey\u2019s been asked to do a lot, so even a day down as a DH, I think makes sense or has some value in the long run. I think the biggest thing is for us, he\u2019s a big threat in the lineup. He\u2019s a big threat off the bench when he comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Eldridge is not going to start every game, if his at-bats are much fewer\u00a0than they were at Triple-A Sacramento \u2014 where, to be fair, teams are always off Mondays \u2014 is he here for the long haul or is he a stopgap for now?<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think we see him here for the long haul, and he\u2019s here to boost our offense,\u201d Vitello said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are other possibilities, of course. The most obvious is that Giants aren\u2019t locked into this if it doesn\u2019t work, but Vitello said that as long as Eldridge is able to stay in a rhythm, that won\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n
“I’ve kind of looked at it the way of you don’t want him to get stagnant,” Vitello said, “and he’s definitely not going to get the amount of at-bats that he would get if he was on a minor-league team and he’s the key ingredient in the middle of the order \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 not that he can’t be that for us and that may occur, but just kind of looking at it from a status-quo perspective, I think it’s more important just to keep him in a rhythm, and then hopefully after a month or two, we can assess how much more do you need to push repetitions or not.”<\/p>\n
The second possibility is that, if there is an injury anywhere in the infield, everyday playing time could open up at DH because of Schmitt\u2019s versatility.<\/p>\n
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And the third is that San Francisco just dealt away a starter, catcher Patrick Bailey, and while there are zero indications they\u2019re looking to move anyone else, should the team remain mired near the bottom of the league, \u00a0the Giants could trade free-agent-to-be Arraez and get a haul, as the Chronicle reported last week.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s more difficult to imagine them moving Devers, Adames or Chapman, given their big contracts, but it\u2019s not impossible should a contender have a major need. This seems the least likely scenario, but Posey has demonstrated he\u2019s unafraid to go against the grain\u00a0\u2014 if he decides he wants to open up an everyday spot for Eldridge, you can be sure he will do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants\u2019 Bryce Eldridge celebrates after hitting a solo home run, the first of his career,\u00a0 during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[69956,101,4820,103,102,104,106,105,10892],"class_list":["post-311798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bryce-eldridge","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-tony-vitello"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}