RICHMOND, Va. — Bryce Eldridge doesn’t know how he got so lucky.
The Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels, the San Francisco Giants’ only minor-league affiliate on the East Coast, play roughly 100 miles from Eldridge’s hometown of Vienna, Virginia. And Eldridge, a 20-year-old not yet two years removed from high school, is enjoying every opportunity to play in his home state.
His family attends nearly every home game. He’s slept in his own bed on off days. He hangs out with his friends when he has the time. The Flying Squirrels pack The Diamond, their 9,560-seat ballpark, nearly every night, and some percentage of that crowd can be attributed to the native Virginian’s presence.
Yes, the Giants’ top prospect loves playing close to home. He’ll also be on the first flight out when the time comes. California, soon, will be calling — Sacramento, then San Francisco.
“I’m not getting caught up on when or if it happens this year, but if it does, it does,” Eldridge told this news organization this week. “I’m just going to trust in Buster (Posey) and the front office. Whatever their decision is, I’m ready to go whenever they call me.”
For all Eldridge’s potential, his chances of making the majors this season are slim.
Posey tempered those expectations during the MLB Winter Meetings, noting how the 20-year-old Eldridge would only be a sophomore had he attended college. There’s no shortage of fans clamoring for Eldridge to join the Giants sooner rather than later — especially with LaMonte Wade Jr. struggling, specifically, and the entire team struggling, generally. For now, Eldridge will continue to ride the bus.
The 6-foot-7 first baseman missed several weeks due to a left wrist injury that he sustained during spring training, pushing his season debut back to April 22. Eldridge started slow despite homering in his first at-bat of the season, but entering Saturday, Eldridge owns a slash line of .313/.368/.573 with six home runs over 26 games in May. This output comes after Eldridge hit 23 homers with 92 RBIs over four levels last season.
The long-term question with Eldridge is not his bat, but his defense. The Giants drafted Eldridge out of James Madison High School as a two-way player but quickly scrapped those plans. They initially placed him in right field in ’23 but moved him to first base last season. There have been growing pains for Eldridge, who has committed 23 errors in 120 career games at first base, but the organization has surrounded him with mentors to work on his defense.
San Francisco Giants prospect Bryce Eldridge bats for the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels during a 2025 game at The Diamond in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo: Mick Anders/Richmond Flying Squirrels)Matt Williams and J.T. Snow, who own a combined 10 Gold Gloves, worked with Eldridge during his first big league spring training. Joe Panik, the former Giants second baseman turned special assistant, joined the Flying Squirrels last week and worked with Eldridge. And in recent months, Eldridge has gotten plenty familiar with one of the best first basemen in franchise history.
“He’s definitely going to be a major leaguer,” said special assistant Will Clark, a five-time All-Star and one-time Gold Glover who served as the Giants’ starting first baseman for eight seasons. “It’s just as of this point in his career, he just needs more repetitions at first base defensively.”
Clark, who has worked with Eldridge four times in the last year, emphasized that Eldridge has only played the position for a little more than a year. To Clark, Eldridge needs a high volume of innings so he can experience “the stuff that happens in games that surprises you.” He pointed to a “teaching moment” last week where Eldridge hesitated on a throw in the dirt instead of attacking it. The result was the ball skipping past Eldridge, allowing a runner to score.
There was also a game during Eldridge’s time with High-A Eugene where Clark recognized a right-handed hitter being late on a fastball. Clark got Eldridge’s attention and told him to be ready. On the next pitch, the hitter smashed a rocket at Eldridge, one that he fielded cleanly and tagged first for the out.
“He came in the dugout and was like, ‘Man, thank you so much.’ I’m like, ‘Those are the kind of things that you need to observe,’ ” Clark said. “When a guy’s late like that, that’s the guy who’s going to hit one at you. Or, vice versa. You got a left-hander and he’s out in front of some breaking balls. That’s the guy that’s going to hit a ball at you. So, just the little things that he’s learning. On the fly, he’s learning, and the more repetitions he gets at first base, the better off he is.”
Along with Clark, Eldridge works consistently with Richmond manager Dennis Pelfrey and fundamentals coach Lipso Nava. Pelfrey, who also managed Eldridge during the Arizona Fall League, preaches the idea of playing first base like a shortstop: staying low, staying athletic, staying balanced.
San Francisco Giants' Bryce Eldridge (88) takes infield practice during spring training at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)“He has dedicated himself to becoming a great first baseman,” said Pelfrey, who became the Flying Squirrels’ winningest manager last week. “He’s 100 times better than he was last year at that position. He’s still got a long way to go, obviously. He knows that. For a 6-foot-7 guy, the strides are long anyways, but he’s making those types of strides defensively as well.”
Added Nava: “He’s a guy that picks it up quick. He’s a fast learner and that’s one of the things that’s going to allow him to move quicker through the minor leagues.”
Under Clark’s tutelage, Eldridge isn’t just learning the nuances of first base. He is also slowly adopting the mindset that made Clark one of baseball’s fiercest competitors.
Eldridge, born about four years after Clark’s final game, is plenty familiar with Clark’s intensity. He’s seen most of Clark’s highlights on YouTube, among them the time he slid hard into the Cardinals’ Jose Oquendo and incited a true benches-clearing brawl. Eldridge might not get to that level, but he’s willing to embrace a Clark-ian edge.
“A lot of (baseball) is mental, and having his mentality of basically, ‘F you, I’m better than you’ every single time I go out there is definitely something I picked up from him,” Eldridge said.
Said Clark: “People are scared of him. They know that he hit 20-something homers last year and drove in 90-something. They know he’s our No. 1 prospect in the organization. They know all that crap. Well, if they’re scared of him, when you walk up to the plate, you own that. You walk up to the plate like you’re Aaron Judge. ‘I’m 6-foot-7 and I’m going to hurt you.’”
Eldridge, who won’t turn 21 until October, will have the summer to sharpen that mentality against Eastern League and, in time, Pacific Coast League pitching. The Giants have no desire to rush Eldridge, Clark among those looking at the long-term picture.
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A promotion to Triple-A Sacramento sometime this summer seems inevitable. Eldridge, the third-youngest player in the Eastern League, owns a slash line of .292/.364/.509 with five homers and 15 RBIs. When Eldridge plays home games in his home state, he has a 1.100 OPS entering Saturday.
For the time being, Eldridge is content to continue polishing his skills in Richmond and enjoying the family time that comes with it. He spent Mother’s Day with his mom. Time will tell if he’ll still be home to spend Father’s Day with his dad, too.
San Francisco Giants' Bryce Eldridge (88) is congratulated in the dugout after connecting for a two-run home run against the Texas Rangers in the ninth inning of a spring training baseball game at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers 6-1. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) Read More Details
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