SF Giants can take advantage of MLB incentive with Bryce Eldridge, but must act fast

The SF Giants chose to start top prospect Bryce Eldridge in the minor leagues this season, but the team could still take advantage of MLB’s PPI (Prospect Promotion Initiative) if they call him up soon.

The PPI was designed so that MLB teams would have an actual incentive to promote prospects either to the Opening Day roster or within the first two weeks of the season rather than delaying their promotion as a form of service time manipulation so the team could delay the year they hit free agency.

SF Giants can take advantage of MLB incentive by promoting Bryce Eldridge

One of the more infamous examples of this was how the Chicago Cubs handled Kris Bryant back in 2015. He was clearly ready for the big leagues but the Cubs stuck him in Triple-A to begin the year and called him up after a few weeks.

Under the current collective bargaining agreement, teams have an incentive to promote top prospects early rather than waiting. If a team promotes what is considered a top-100 MLB prospect and that player either goes on to be Rookie of the Year in their rookie season or places in the top three in either the MVP or Cy Young Award voting in their first three seasons then that team is awarded an extra draft pick.

It’s not a huge incentive, but it at least throws teams a bone to try and get them to call up players who are ready even if they are young.

Eldridge was promoted to the big leagues in September of last season, but PPI rules state that a prospect can have little to no service time and still qualify and Eldridge has just 14 days of MLB service time.

Coming into spring training, it was a big question as to whether Eldridge would make the club or not. He probably needed a really strong showing in Arizona to earn a spot on the team, but he hit just .225 and struck out in almost half of his at-bats.

Yet, the demotion to the minors may have ticked him off a little as he hit a home run against the Giants in the team’s exhibition game against the Sacramento River Cats and hit another homer at Oracle Park in the team’s exhibition against the Sultanes de Monterrey.

So far this season in Triple-A he has three hits in 14 at-bats. He will likely have to get pretty hot to force his way into the Giants or an injury will have to create an opening for him. Jerar Encarnacion earned the first base/designated hitter spot on the bench with a hot spring and is out of minor league options so the Giants will give him some runway even though he may not get a ton of playing time with Rafael Devers at DH and Casey Schmitt, a superior defender, at first base.

Still, maybe Eldridge will get called up soon and the Giants could potentially benefit if he goes on to have a great season either this season, or in the next few seasons, with the Giants.