#bryce-eldridge

#bryce-eldridge

Eldridge dedicated the early part of his morning to working on infield defense, beaming with joy as he described his first fielding session with infield coach Ron Washington. Then, as the first position player groups took batting practice, Eldridge grabbed Lee's glove and headed out to left field to shag fly balls alongside outfielder Drew Gilbert. To be clear, Eldridge isn't changing positions anytime soon. He is a first baseman, and barring the unforeseen, he will continue to be a first baseman.

Eldridge tore up the Double-A level this year with a .280/.350/.512 slash line (147 wRC+) in 140 trips to the plate to start the season before being promoted to Triple-A, where he spent most of the year and posted a .249/.322/.514 slash line. That was good for a wRC+ of just 105 thanks to the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, but Eldridge's 18 homers in 66 games is hard to argue with.

No, ahead of a week-long road trip and amid a playoff race, the San Francisco Giants are calling up their top prospect power-hitting first baseman Bryce Eldridge and they're doing it for the purest of reasons: They think he can be the difference. And it's the right button to push at exactly the right time for Giants director of baseball operations and eager button-pusher Buster Posey.

VIENNA, Virginia Vienna is a town of about 17,000 people in high-density Fairfax County, which has a population of just more than 1 million and is just west of the nation's capital. It is about 10 miles from the baseball field at James Madison High in Vienna to the White House in Washington, a city that was without a Major League Baseball team from 1972 until the Nationals came to town in 2005.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote earlier in the week that it's "more likely" the 20-year-old will finish out the season in Triple-A and hope for his first call to the majors in 2026. President of baseball operations Buster Posey removed further doubt the following day when telling John Shea of the San Francisco Standard that his team would "most likely not" promote Eldridge for his big league debut before season's end.