SF Giants are clearly telegraphing their unorthodox leadoff hitter of the future

After the SF Giants traded away fan-favorite second baseman Luis Arraez, it was fair to wonder who would assume leadoff hitter duties. He was not the team’s only leadoff hitter this season but many times they turned to him.

Since the trade deadline, it seems they are telegraphing their leadoff hitter of the future and it is a bit of an unorthodox choice: left-handed slugger Bryce Eldridge. It's not a huge surprise since manager Tony Vitello said they toyed with the idea earlier in the season.

He’s now hit leadoff in three games for the team and it will be interesting to see if they continue to experiment with that going forward. It makes sense on paper because Eldridge has a .347 on base percentage which is the highest mark on the team after Arraez was traded.

While Arraez got on base so often by being a pesky contact specialist who seemed like he could slap any pitch into the outfield for a hit, Eldridge takes a lot of walks to get on base which is just as good as a hit. Eldridge has drawn 38 walks on the season which is second only to Rafael Devers’ 48 on the team.

Maybe the Giants will use Eldridge as their leadoff guy against right-handed starters but will use someone else against left-handed starters, although his numbers against lefties are better in some respects than they are against righties. He’s hitting .247/.353/.441 versus righties and .264/.329/.417 against lefties. 

This is an era in which sluggers like Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber bat leadoff so it's not totally uncommon to have a power threat like Eldridge bat leadoff.

Jung Hoo Lee is another leadoff option for the Giants

One might think Jung Hoo Lee should be the leadoff hitter going forward since he is now the team’s best contact hitter and is the most prototypical leadoff guy on the team. His numbers batting leadoff this season in 16 games are .265/.296/.382. In his career he’s hit .248/.310/.359 as the leadoff guy which is worse than every other spot in the order except cleanup.

For whatever reason maybe he’s just not comfortable in that spot even though the Giants definitely signed him thinking he was going to be their everyday leadoff guy.

Even if Eldridge as the leadoff guy ends up just being an experiment, now is the time to do it. These last few months are perfect for experimentation and trying things that maybe the coaching staff was afraid to do earlier in the year. Playoffs are out of the picture so why not get a bit weird? Heck, maybe even let Eldridge, who was once seen as a two-way prospect, pitch a few innings too just for the fun of it.

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