Bryce Eldridge just took over the SF Giants

In the clubhouse after his improbable, incredible, pick-your-adjective walk-off grand slam, Bryce Eldridge dropped one of the best quotes a San Francisco Giants rookie has ever given, a line that may have been nearly as memorable as the swing itself.  

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“I think about it every day,” he said to the assembled press. “I want to be the face of this franchise. That’s something that motivates me every day. … I want to be in that moment; I want to be that guy.”

When a player says something like that — especially a 21-year-old, can’t-miss prospect whom Giants fans have been hearing about for years now right after he became the youngest player in Major League Baseball history to hit a walk-off grand slam — it’s enough to inject some life into even the deadest of seasons.

Suddenly, Giants games aren’t must-miss affairs anymore.  

Suddenly, the Giants have a guy in their lineup who will cause fans to stop what they’re doing and get in front of a TV to watch his at-bats.  

Suddenly, this franchise belongs to Bryce Eldridge.  

Yes, the phenom, he of 38 career big-league games, is the face of the Giants. This is his team now.  

It’s a lot to put on the plate of a rookie, but when a season is this disappointing, this disastrous, fans need something to hold onto. They need a glimpse of better days ahead, and that’s Eldridge. To use a very timely “Game of Thrones” reference, he is the prince that was promised. 

The Giants, bless them, tried their hardest to delay his arrival for as long as they could. They picked Jerar Encarnacion to make the opening day roster, leaving Eldridge to spend a month or so in Sacramento when he very clearly was the better option. When they finally called him up, manager Tony Vitello gave a very weird, nonsensical answer as to why Eldridge wasn’t starting, saying that pinch hitting can be important to his development. President Buster Posey went on the radio and implied there wasn’t really a plan for Eldridge’s usage. And then as recently as last week, Eldridge was being benched in favor of someone named Buddy Kennedy.  

But Eldridge was inevitable. He’s shown the power to all fields that the prospect writers promised. He’s also shown far better plate discipline than anyone expected — he’s cut down on his strikeouts dramatically, and he’s got the highest walk-rate of any of the regulars on this team. Oh, and he’s a perfect 4-for-4 on his ABS challenges, too. 

Now that he’s settled in, the Giants’ lineup actually became dangerous. It’s no mystery why they’ve suddenly become a juggernaut — having Eldridge’s bat in the lineup allows guys to breathe a little, hit in spots that are better fits for them, and see better pitches. He’s the bat the Giants have been missing for years. 

It didn’t turn out to be Rafael Devers or Willy Adames, two very good players who’ve both struggled in their time here. The superstar the Giants have been waiting for, the one they’ve spent more than a decade trying (and failing spectacularly) to find, was in their house all along.  

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It’s impossible to overstate how important that is to the fan base, who hold a special place for homegrown talent. Signing free agents or trading for stars is nice, but they don’t have as long of a leash with the fans as a guy who comes through the system (look at the vitriol toward Devers, Adames and Matt Chapman for proof of this). A new face of the franchise coming from within was always the best thing that could happen. Trouble is, the Giants have been so bad at drafting over the past decade-plus, it didn’t look like one would ever emerge. Couple that with the organization’s inability to sign a major free agent, and things were looking bleak. Eldridge arrived just in time. 

For the Giants, the takeaway is obvious: everything moving forward should be built around him. They have the centerpiece every franchise covets, and one they’ve been looking for since Posey retired. Eldridge is a player the team can pencil into the heart of the lineup for years, and construct the rest of the roster around.  

And if that leads to some hard questions, so be it. Devers plays the same position as Eldridge, and chances are the Giants would rather their young star spend more time playing first base than DH. Sliding Devers to full-time DH makes the most sense, but that was, let’s say, an issue for him last year with the Red Sox. He’s said many times that he wants to play defense. And as history has shown, it doesn’t take a lot to make him unhappy. 

If that leads to the Giants having to move Devers — and eat some of his salary in the process — those are the breaks. Trading for him was a worthy risk, and I’m sure the Giants would rather have both of their slugging first basemen in the lineup long-term. But whatever they do has to be right by Eldridge. Devers has the contract, but Eldridge has the juice. The Giants have plenty of money, but are very, very short on juice.  

But those are questions that can wait for another day. For now, the Giants have their cornerstone, the fans have their guy, and Eldridge is showing he should have been up here all along. He’s a star. The Giants finally got one right. 

And if his presence is enough to convince ownership to spend real money on pitching over the winter, they might as well start building the statue.