It’s like having a Porsche 911 Carrera and being instructed not to exceed 50 miles per hour.
It’s getting a custom Armani suit but told it can only be worn at family barbeques.
It’s like winning an all-inclusive Tahiti beach vacation for two, but your plus-one is your grandmother.
It’s the San Francisco Giants calling up their No. 1 prospect, one of the prized young sluggers in baseball, only to let him rot on the bench.
The Giants, who promoted first baseman Bryce Eldridge two weeks ago from Triple-A Sacramento, are utilizing their batboys more frequently than Eldridge.
Eldridge, called up May 4, has inexplicably started just five games in the last two weeks, and only once in the last four days for a team whose season is already on life support with the second-worst record in the National League.
Please, make it make sense.
This is a 21-year-old who just had the best night of his season on May 18, producing two hits for the Giants, which matched his season total.
His reward?
The bench.
Again.
Really.
“It’s a little bit of a puzzle to solve,” said Giants manager Tony Vitello, “but when you come to work every day and you’ve got a guy that’s always got a smile on his face and he’s willing to do whatever you ask, it makes it a lot easier.”
Easy for who? It’s not Vitello’s development that’s being stymied, it’s Eldridge’s career.
This is a 6-foot-7, 251-pound, first-round pick that’s one of the prized young hitters in baseball.
He’s had 1,216 plate appearances in the minors, hitting .274 with 23 homers, 89 RBI and an .858 OPS at Triple-A, with the Giants, believing he’s ready for the big leagues.
They called him up after a winless road trip, started him three consecutive games like every other team would with call-ups, but inexplicably, he’s being used like a 37-year-old journeyman third-string catcher. The Giants have started him only five times in the last 13 days.
So, instead of getting his experience in the big leagues, or at least continuing his development in the minors, he sits.
And sits. And sits. And sits.
Never, ever, has Eldridge been a bench player in his life.
Not in T-ball. Not in Little League or Pony League, or his high School in Vienna, Virginia. Not in rookie ball, Class A San Jose, High-A Eugene, Double-A Richmond, the Arizona Fall League or at Triple-A Sacramento.
Only now.
“I guess I’m surprised,’’ Eldridge tells USA TODAY Sports, “but it’s not my decision. It is what it is. You can argue every day that playing every day would be helpful, but I’m happy to be here.
“Obviously, it’s a little bit different, but this is where I’ve always wanted to be. I’ve just got to continue to earn my stripes here.’’
Well, if nothing else, Eldridge is quickly learning that there’s nothing remotely fair about this game.
If playing time was based on production, he would have been in the starting lineup Tuesday, only to wake up, look at his cell phone, check out the lineup posted on the Giants’ group chat, and see that his name was not in the starting lineup.
It turns out that Tuesday’s lineup was comprised ahead of time, regardless of how he fared Monday. Even though Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson is right-handed, and Eldridge is a left-handed slugger, Vitello said that Nelson’s reverse splits made it a difficult matchup. Nelson (1-3, 5.19 ERA) entered the game yielding a .189 batting average and .644 OPS against lefties compared to a .244 batting average and .789 OPS against righties.
The D-backs wound up using three right-handed pitchers in their 5-3 victory. Eldridge never moved.
Eldridge will be back in the lineup Wednesday against Arizona Diamondbacks veteran Merrill Kelly, Vitello promised, before the Giants head home to play the Chicago White Sox. The plan, at least for now, Vitello said, is for Eldridge not to sit for three consecutive games, which still seems to be two games too long.
“I don’t think we’ve come up with the Jordan rules or anything like that,’’ Vitello said, “but I think that’s a decent baseline. I worked with a guy a long, long time ago, and he said if you go three-plus days without using a skill, that skill is going to go backwards.’’
Still, as Eldridge or really any ballplayer can tell you, sitting around for several days and suddenly stepping into the batter’s box, can be a living nightmare. Your timing is thrown off. You question your own mechanics. Every pitcher suddenly looks like Los Angeles Dodgers co-aces Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who he got to face in back-to-back nights.
Eldridge, who sat on the bench for the final two games of the Giants’ series over the weekend against the Athletics in Sacramento, felt almost clueless in his first at-bat Monday against Zac Gallen. He struck out on four pitches, watching a 94-mph fastball cross the plate for Strike 3.
Yet, he hit a 103-mph single to right field in the third inning, grounded out in the sixth inning, and hit an opposite-field single in the ninth inning on a change-up, raising his batting average to .143 in just 31 plate appearances.
“It was nice to have something to be positive about going into the next one,’’ said Eldridge, “so that’s good. The past week, there wasn’t much to be confident about.’’
It’s Vitello and the coaching staff’s responsibility to assure that Eldridge’s confidence doesn’t erode rotting on the bench, trying to make sure he gets some at-bats as a pinch-hitter until they decide what to do.
“When you’re young, it’s tough,’’ says Giants veteran catcher Eric Haase, a mentor for Eldridge in Sacramento, and now in San Francisco. “You’re up in the big leagues. You know you’re a big prospect. They have a lot invested in you. You start feeling that pressure.
“I know it might take awhile to get his swing going with these lapses in between games, but you have to be prepared. It’s easy to fall into lulls of like, 'Well, I’m not playing today, maybe I can sit back and rest.' No, you have to have the same routines, the mental space, to be ready.
“He’s a great hitter with a good head on his shoulders. He’s doing everything they’ve asked. I think some steady at-bats are going to follow.’’
Ok, but where?
He’s certainly not going to play first base with the Giants already committed to Rafael Devers and the $255 million they picked up when they acquired him last June from the Boston Red Sox. Casey Schmitt, who has been the Giants’ best all-around hitter (.294, 8 homers, 21 RBI with an .855 OPS), is blocked in the infield with Matt Chapman (6 years, $151 million) at third base, Willy Adames (7 years, $182 million) at shortstop and Luis Arraez (one year, $12 million) at second base, leaving him as the primary DH. And Eldridge is strictly a first baseman and DH.
The only logical move would be sending Eldridge back to Sacramento if they’re not going to play him every day. Their only viable infield trade chip is Arraez, the three-time batting champion who’s hitting .320. But he also happens to be one of their most productive players.
For now, the Giants remain in a holding pattern. They’re not a legitimate playoff team with a 20-29 record, sitting in fourth place in the NL West, 10 games behind the Dodgers, but it’s also too early to punt on their season.
“First of all, we want to win,’’ Vitello said. “But the thing about Bryce is he can [still] help us win. I’ve been in the other dugout. When it’s a guy like that, that can just touch the ball and it goes over the fence, or you can put it in a gap, it changes things a little bit. So even if there isn’t actual production or on the stat sheet, it doesn’t look great, he can help us win by being a presence in the lineup.
“And that’s only going to increase the more reps he gets in the lineup.’’
Of course, that requires being in the actual lineup.
In the meantime, Eldridge waits, watches, and, of course, sits.
“Whether I’m playing or not, I think just being around this environment, and this clubhouse, and being able to watch games,’’ Eldridge said, “I’m trying to make the most of that.’’
Really, what choice does he have?
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bryce Eldridge, Giants top prospect, isn't playing regularly. Why?
