Your 2026 Giants: Eldridge Update

I have been covering Bryce Eldridge’s breakout this season in a series of posts.  I last covered him in this post, and thought this was a good time to update since he was out for bereavement leave.  

To recap, many fans and media were, and still are, confused about how Eldridge was handled early on.  But as I detailed in my first post, he was immediately started, struck out too much, got took out, presumably to work on things, started again and struck out too much again, resulting in his next break to work on things.  

His next starts was when things changed.  He didn’t start hitting, but the key thing was that he was making good contact, even if he wasn’t hitting, and the Giants didn’t take him out, and soon after, he was hitting great, like a superstar, over 1.000 OPS.  We left off right around the end of that sizzling hot streak.

ogc thoughts 

In this post, I’m going to go over his ups and downs so far this season.

In his first 8 games this season, .394 OPS with 9 strikeouts in 27 PA/24 AB, over 30% at 33%, and 1 homer.  Even while striking out too much, he still got 3 walks in 27 PA, 11% rate, which is good.

In his next 9 games, he’s up to a nice .811 OPS, with 5 walks and only 6 strikeouts in 34 PA/28 AB, and no homers. Anytime you have as many walks as strikeouts, or close to it, you are doing something very well.

In his next 16 games, he’s broke out, hitting .426/.500/.764/1.264 with 9 walks and 11 strikeouts in 70 PA/61 AB, and 5 homers.  Everything looked great.  

Then here’s his first strong struggle.  In his next 13 games, he only hit .590 OPS, with 17 strikeouts and only 6 walks in 54 PA/48 AB, over 30% strikeouts again, and only 1 homer.

Then he stabilized some.  In his next 11 games, he hit .256/.370/.513/.882, with 7 walks and 14 strikeouts in 46 PA/39 AB, with 3 homers.  That’s a great walk rate, but a still bad strikeout rate, still over 30%.  

Another bad stretch came next, over 17 games:  .483 OPS with 8 walks and 23 strikeouts in 70 PA/62 AB, with 1 homers. That’s still over 30% strikeout rate, but still walking well.

And his last 13 games, he adjusted back against what the pitchers were doing, hitting .271/.364/.479/.843, with 7 walks and 14 strikeouts, in 55 PA / 48 AB, and 3 homers.  He’s reducing his strikeouts again, roughly 25%.  That’s always a key with power hitters, when they can manage their strikeouts and keep it down to the 25% level or better,  Hopefully he can continue hitting this well for the rest of the season.