SF Giants must stay patient even as Guardians add pressure on Bryce Eldridge call-up

As the SF Giants look around baseball and see top prospects getting promoted and doing impressive things in the big leagues, it would be easy to want to follow suit and call up top prospect Bryce Eldridge. The Cleveland Guardians are the latest team to promote their top prospect as Travis Bazzana was just called up.

They followed the trend set by other teams like the Detroit Tigers who started the season with Kevin McGonigle on the roster or the Pittsburgh Pirates who promoted Konnor Griffin. The Tigers and Pirates also recently signed those guys to long-term extensions even though they don't have a track record of success in the big leagues. Those teams are betting the contracts will age nicely.

The Giants have to resist the temptation to follow this trend, though. Eldridge is a great talent, but there is no real purpose in promoting him right now because he would not get a lot of playing time.

Giants need to remain patient with Eldridge and keep him in Triple-A

With how red-hot Casey Schmitt has been at the plate as of late, he is going to be the designated hitter for the foreseeable future. Even though first baseman Rafael Devers has had a brutal start to the season and is clearly struggling, the Giants are not paying him all that money to sit on the bench.

Something tells me the Giants are not quite comfortable throwing Eldridge in the outfield just yet and even if they were there's not room for him out there either. That's why the most prudent course is to keep him in Triple-A where he can continue to get regular at-bats.

Eldridge will get his opportunity somehow. Maybe someone gets injured and that creates an opening for him or Schmitt goes cold for a couple of weeks and the Giants are in need of a new DH. Waiting for that moment is better than calling him up right now, likely designating Jerar Encarnacion for assignment, and then just putting him on the bench.

President of baseball operations Buster Posey has talked about how he wants players to mature in the minor leagues before they get called up. The Giants seem unlikely to follow the trend of call-up, then extend that so many other franchises are employing. With how San Francisco has struggled to get much out of its prospects in recent years, they would be very wise to wait and see how Eldridge performs before committing a ton of money to him right now.

His time will come, but for right now the Giants need to ignore what the rest of MLB is doing and just be patient.

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