Bryce Eldridge’s response to mini-slump will show SF Giants if he’s the real deal

When SF Giants rookie Bryce Eldridge hit a walk-off grand slam a few weeks ago to beat the Washington Nationals, it felt like he was on a superstar path. He’s struggled a bit at the plate since that big moment but how he responds to his mini-slump will tell the Giants whether he is the real deal or not.

To be clear, Eldridge hasn’t completely fallen off a cliff. In his last 15 games he’s hitting .200/.302/.291 with one homer and three runs driven in which is not dreadful. He’s still doing a lot of things well even if he’s not hitting a grand slam every other day, but how he rebounds from this will be telling.

When a guy goes on a tear like Eldridge did, the league will start to adjust. Pitchers are going to know what his weak spots are and will try to exploit them. Expect a lot of teams to pitch him inside or up at the belt to try to prevent him from getting his arms too extended.

Eldridge has proven he can handle inside pitches already so he shouldn’t be too thrown off but the more information teams get on him the more opponents are going to find out the pitches he doesn’t like and the more he will have to adjust.

He seems well-equipped to do it. When he’s at the plate he does not look like a 21-year-old. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s 6-foot-7 and has a full beard but the way he’s able to take tough pitches and simply the way he carries himself at the plate suggests he is far older.

Eldridge's plate discipline is his hidden superpower

His good eye may be what is most impressive about him. He is able to lay off pitches most power-hitting 21-year-olds would be swinging wildly at. Plus, he is a perfect 8-for-8 when it comes to ABS challenges so his understanding of the strike zone is really impressive and he has some early shades of Brandon Belt.

That’s why Eldridge has been so encouraging. If this is him when he’s “cold” at the plate and he’s still putting together great at-bats and getting on base at a respectable rate then that is not a bad player to have in the lineup on an everyday basis.

The question now is whether he can get really hot again and help power the lineup. The Giants are hoping he can be the guy for them going forward so he needs to go on a few of those stretches where he carries the team to prove that he can get it back even if he isn’t smashing the ball over the fence for a couple weeks.

It’s obviously nowhere near time to press the panic button and even if he does go into a deeper slump he should still play pretty much every day and be given a chance to work his way out of it in this stinker of a season. But he can prove to everyone that he’s the real deal by coming out of this mini-slump and maybe even make himself a frontrunner in the NL Rookie of the Year race.

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