Splash Considerations Ep. 2: Bryce Eldridge to Start Season in Triple-A Sacramento (feat. Shayna Rubin)

Justice is joined by Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle to discuss the Giants' decision to option first baseman Bryce Eldridge, the top prospect in the organization, to Triple-A Sacramento to begin the year.

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Full story on Eldridge

Full story on Hayden Birdsong set undergoing Tommy John surgery

Full story on Barry Bonds joining the Netflix broadcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to another episode of Splash Considerations. My name is Justice Delos Santos, San Francisco Giants Beat reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. I'm joined by Shayna Rubin, friend of the program, Shayna Rubin, baseball reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, and this has like randomly been one of like the like sneakily been one of the longest days of the entire spring. We obviously have the news that Hayden Birdsong is officially gonna undergo Tommy John. We had the spring breakout game, so we had the opportunity to talk with a couple minor leaguers, even if you want to consider the fact that Barry Bonds is gonna be a guest analyst as part of uh the Netflix broadcast, even that was kind of part of the news cycle. And, you know, even with all that, I'll be honest, Shana, like I wasn't planning for us to record today. I was gonna wait till Saturday, I was gonna wait till the final day of camp. We can have a big, larger discussion, and I'm sure we'll talk about all of those subjects during the final day of camp, but I I think today necessitates, I don't want to call it an emergency podcast. This is not exactly an emergency, but I would say expediting the process because uh the fate of one Bryce Eldridge has indeed been decided. He is going to start the season with AAA Sacramento, he's not gonna be on the Giants opening day roster. And I think the part that I'll just start off with you is I think at this juncture in the spring, this doesn't come as much of a surprise at this point.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

That's where we're starting.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

That's where we're starting.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, it's not not much of a surprise. I think um I was a little surprised at the I don't know why I was it's it's the end of spring, and I don't know why it still threw me off. I think I was surprised at my reaction. I was like, oh, it's happening already. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

I think that's the more surprising thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah, but it almost at the end, so maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised. Um I think if you asked me uh a few few weeks ago, um, I wouldn't say that this would have been a sure thing, but uh as spring progressed, it became pretty clear to my understanding and sight that he definitely needs, you know, uh he needs I don't I don't want to say confidence in the play, but he there's a there's a gap between what he's capable of and sort of the comfort comfortable comfortability of what he's capable of. It's like 9-30, it's hard to pronounce the I don't know, I don't know if that was actually it, but hopefully you get the point.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

But I mean I go back to you know, you can in retrospect now you can read between the lines as to a lot of what was said earlier in spring training, and even going back to the first time we talked with president of baseball operations, Buster Posey, about it, you know, if you just again in retrospect it's really easy to see, I don't want to say really easy, but it's easier to see that, you know, maybe he wasn't super excited about the prospect of Buster, or not Buster Bryce, uh being on the opening day roster because even if we go back to 2024, 2025, you know, he would constantly reference that he wanted to slow play Bryce. And one of the things that really stuck out, again, of those super early conversations uh in spring training was that Tony Vaitello constantly mentioned this idea of repetitions. He mentioned it with Bryce, but I also remember he talked about it with Patrick Bailey and Drew Gilbert and kind of unrelated subjects, but Vaitello just kind of hammered home this point of repetitions, repetitions, repetitions. And when you hear that, and then you combine it with the fact that Bryce has not had a lot of repetitions with AAA Sacramento, the numbers are fresh in mind, but 321 plate appearances with Sacramento, about 500, almost 500, even above Hayie, so not even a full season's worth of plate appearances. There just hasn't been a ton of reps for Bryce. And again, it'd be one thing, I mentioned this point a lot. It'd be one thing if he was just tearing it up at all levels of the minors and was kind of forcing his way to the major leagues. But as we've seen kind of in spring training, and even as we saw with Sacramento last year, that hasn't necessarily been the case. And as Logan Webb said after today's start, it's not necessarily a bad thing either for him to start the season in Sacramento because again, he's he's only 21. I think we were both in college when we were 21.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

So I was, yeah. Yeah, he just uh he can drink now. Last year he couldn't drink. He can drink now. Things are happening for him, big things are happening for him that aren't even baseball related. Um, but yeah, it's all about the reps with him. Um I think it's it's one of those things that obviously with a top prospect, and obviously with the type of ceiling he has, and obviously when you think about oh Bryce at his best and with Raphael Devers on this in this lineup, and suddenly you start to have sort of this like a dreamcasting of Grand Visions. Grand visions and uh of what could be if he's at his best. Uh and it's I think maybe for Giants fans who are want to that's to finally come to fruition and they want to see uh a higher ceiling, they wanna they want to see something more explosive offensively, and they want and I'm I'm not gonna pin this on the fans. I think it's like a fair ask is fair, you know, you want you want your top prospect with the type of potential that he has to come up and really uh elevate things, and that's you keep waiting for the elevation, you keep waiting for the moment where they're gonna take this this next step offensively. So it's just it all makes sense logically, where it's like, okay, obviously he needs more reps defensively and at the plate. He needs to, everything needs to sort of coincide into a more complete player. And he's not really a complete player yet in terms of his capabilities at the big league level. But the engine. Um so it's it's it's one of those things where you just uh you know, you would have liked to see him really just knock the door down, but you're also not surprised that he didn't.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, I think it's fair, because again, we were we were fans at some point, and I think it it was fair, especially because I mentioned Barry Bonds earlier, like he's gonna be part of, you know, this Netflix broadcast. It's obviously the first time Netflix is ever dipping its toes into these waters. And you know, if you kind of just go like full vision, like imagine Bryce Seldridge on the third baseline, Aaron Judge on the first baseline, these two six, seven guys, and then you know, like obviously Judge earlier with the Team USA exhibition was like, I think I want Bryce to be part of the next team, and then you know, like this super like it would just be a lot of fun. Like, I think we've mentioned that, like it just would have been a lot of fun. And yeah, again, for the fan base, if you're a fan and you think that, like, that is completely and totally fine. But unfortunately, with Buster Posey, Zach Manasseh, and Jeremy Shelley, the Giants Brass as a whole, as much as I'm pretty sure like they would have loved that scenario to unfold too, it's just not gonna come to fruition. And uh everyone's pretty much in universally agreeing too that he's not gonna be on the opening day roster. That doesn't mean he's not gonna contribute at some point this team this season. At this point, it would be shocking, you know, if he kind of didn't wasn't called like if there was just some crazy scenario where we just didn't see him at all. And I've brought up this kind of parallel a lot, you know. 2009, we were not covering the Giants at this time. No, we were a couple years away. But 2009, Buster Posey makes his debut at the end of September, gets his cup of coffee, starts next season in Sacramento. Well, Fresno, they were still Fresno at the time, and then comes up in May, wins rookie of the year, the Giants win the World Series. And I'm not making the direct comparison, I'm not saying Bryce is gonna come up in there magically, you know, because of that. This is not the direct comparison, but you know, this is kind of, you know, as far as getting his cup of coffee starting later, it's kind of that similar trajectory to what Buster did in it. Kind of the irony being that Buster is now the one making that decision.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah, I like the the the little parallel there.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I said that to Shea, he's like, you know your history kid. Anytime I can make John Shea proud, it makes me happy.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Especially with history stuff. Yeah. I feel like he's just a history buff, walking history buff.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yeah. So I I think the question now is, well, not necessarily a question, but I I think this does, it frees up a lot of the conversation in regards to the roster composition because I'm sure in like for sure in stories that I've written, I'm sure in stories that you've written as well, it's kind of been this conversation of well, we need to wait for the Eldridge domino to fall. Like, once the Eldridge domino falls, then we can start envisioning what the rest of this roster is gonna look like. And you know, it's unfortunate news for Bryce Eldridge, of course, and Tony Vitello said after today's game that he took it like a pro. I think this is good news for one Luis Matos. And we've talked about Luis and Girar being out of options, and I think the path for both of them to now be on the opening day roster. I think it was it was easy to say like Girar specifically would kind of make his way under the roster, but now with Eldridge for sure not going to be on the team, it does kind of clear that path for Matos to be on the opening day roster and kind of get he gets this kind of second life, not necessarily second life, but a chance that wasn't necessarily guaranteed to him at the start of camp.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Definitely, and I think it it eliminates the uncomfortability. I mean, I'm saying all these words that I I'm not capable of saying today.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Um it's 1012, it's been a long day. Uncomfortableness?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

The uncomfortable uneasy uneasiness of having to make a decision on both of them. I mean the the the no options players around this time it always becomes a well, what's what's gonna happen here with that? So it it it I don't know, I'm not gonna say that it eliminates the the dilemma, but it definitely puts into picture what they're what they're potentially thinking with with those two.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah, it's the they almost have like a rule five draft status in a sense because you know it's not just the opening day roster either. Like these guys have to be on the team for like the entirety of the year because at this point, again, you can't option them at any point. If you do, you gotta DFA them, trade them, whoever to get them off a team. And again, like with Matos in particular, I think I think it's a fair assessment to say like he's probably best. Like, I think we've seen the best of Matos when he's gotten like consistent played appearances, and so now it's kind of gonna be a similar-ish situation to last year. And I think you know, this is not a shock because you got Elliott in left, Bader in center, Jung Hoo in right, but it's gonna be another situation where he's gonna have to maximize what he does in a role off the bench. And if the this is the role that the Giants end up going with Matos and Gerard, and you've kind of you know anticipate the rest of the bench with Schmidt, well, I guess in that Schmidt, Cas, and then presumably Daniel Susak because Jesus Rodriguez was optioned yesterday. That's a very right, not even a very right-headed hitting bench, that is just all righties. And I think the reason I've always put Will Brennan in my roster projections is just because like they like the lefty presence and also it's you know, they have seen a lot of Matos and he just hasn't, you know, performed up to standard. But again, he he is 24. Uh, he does have just the great bat-to-ball skills, and you know, nothing's guaranteed, nothing's official, but you know, if we see Luis Matos on that third baseline on March 25th against the Yankees, at this point I wouldn't be shocked. It becomes less of again, these are not shocking things, but it it seems more of a possibility now than it was at the start of today.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, I mean with Matos being in that bench rolls, you know, it's it's hard because his biggest issue has been he has these big hot stretches where it's like, oh my god, I can't believe we're seeing the real Luis Matos now, and can he can it stick? And then within a few days, weeks, it just goes completely 180. And it's hard to, you know, deal with the hot and cold when you're you're riding the bench sometimes. So it's it's it's a tricky path for Matos and it it has been for a while.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah, but again, he's only 24, Bryce is only 21. You know, we're we're talking it I'm still in my I'm in my late 20s now. As I'm saying these ages, I'm like, ah, like I'm I'm getting up there. Hey, I I've been an uncle for literally half my life. I I think I've I've long achieved unc status. Um but go back to going back to Bryce, um, we obviously did mention the offense, and one quick point I'll mention is that you know striking out withing, it's pretty much I don't want to say always gonna be part of his offensive profile, but that just kind of is his offensive profile. I don't think you should expect like an always arise transformation out of him. But you know, it's gonna be about reducing the whiff, reducing the strikeouts to a more manageable rate. But hello? What was that?

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Is it the water? It was a whale. A what? It was it was water. Oh geez. Something spit water out of it.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

That's our signal, we gotta wrap this up. But I think the one last thing to mention about Eldridge is that the defense, you know, from what Vitello has said, from what Ron Washington has said, I think the defense has made a substantial improvement. And when you consider that this was a guy who didn't have a position really when he was drafted and only picked up first base ahead of the 2024 season, I think it is significant that he has made the strides that he has made on the defensive end.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah, it doesn't seem like they're trying to, you know, play him up either. I it does seem and you watch him and you can see that the strides are really real for him defensively. The footwork is is much better than anticipated at this juncture. So yeah, the strides defensively for him at first base are real, I'd say.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Ron Washington's never gonna be the type to gas somebody up that is not deserving of being gassed up. And I I think to kind of wrap things up here, as far as you know, when is Bryce Eldridge gonna be on the team, you know, putting a definitive answer on that, uh, we just don't know at this junction. Like I think it's really just gonna depend on how well, yeah, no duh. It's gonna depend on how he plays at Sacramento. And but I I think we are at a point now with Eldridge. I will say this, where last year it was I think Buster was trying to, you know, temper expectations as much as possible to make it, you know, almost. I don't want to say he didn't want to put him on the team at any point, like by any means necessary, but you know, it wasn't his preference. I think now we're at a juncture where he's had his debut, he's had his taste of like his first real major league camp. But what I mean by that is like Major League camp with the intention of trying to make the team. I think when just when he performs and like when the bat is going good, I think we're just gonna see him up here. It's not gonna be a oh, we want him to have more reps. I think if he puts together like a three, four-week stretch, I think we just see him up. I don't think they're gonna play around with it. Especially because again, like the ceiling of this offense is predicated on Eldridge being good. And this is not to place, again, the weight of the world on a 21-year-old, but again, if the like to kind of take the macroscopic view of this, like if the Giants want to be competitive in the Central West both this year and the next couple years, like they are going to need Bryce to be the person they want to be. And in order for that to happen, it is kind of necessary for him to start the season in AAA Sacramento. Again, as much as fans may not want to hear that.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Is that the most poetic thing that I've said this entire time? That's like probably the most coherent thing. I didn't think I was gonna have the potential to say anything back from here. But that'll wrap it up for today. Again, we're probably gonna link back around uh, well, two days from now at this point, have a much longer conversation about camp, about the way that everything's done. But you know, considering that this is kind of the central question that we have been waiting for for the entirety of spring, we just thought it was probably in the best interest to knock this out now as opposed to we got we gotta get the SEO. We gotta get that good SEO. SEO contact, we gotta feed feed the beast. We gotta give it's like what Jalen Rose said, we gotta give the people what they want. Justis Delos Santos, San Jose Mercury News, Shana Rubens, San Francisco Chronicle. See y'all later.