Your 2026 Giants: League Adjusting to Eldridge

I’ve been tracking Eldridge’s game stats since he started striking out less, and to a low enough strikeout rate that he was hitting great. He went on a long heater, but now he’s in a bad patch.

ogc thoughts

Bryce Eldridge started showing a different batting pattern on May 18th, not striking out as much as he was before, when they were giving him starts then giving him a break, apparently to work on his hitting, because after two breaks he started making better contact (that is, stopped striking out as much) and after a few more games, started mashing the ball. He even had a stretch where he was striking out at an elite level.  

But, as with most rookies, all good streaks end, and the adjustments begin.  But what a good streak!  

For those first 9 games, he hit .286/.382/.429/.812, with 5 walks vs 6 strikeouts, in 34 PA/28 AB.  That’s a good contact rate, as well as walk to strikeout ratio, as well as good hitting.  

That was good but then he went on his heater, over his next 16 games:  .426/.500/.754/1.254, with 9 walks and 11 strikeouts, 70 PA/61 AB. Still good strikeout rate!  That’s basically a great month (25 games) of hitting!!!

But in his last 11 games, he has not hit that well, and his strikeouts have rose to poor levels.  He’s only hitting .150/.200/.244/.444, with 5 walks vs 15 strikeouts, in only 45 PA/40 AB, a 33% strikeout rate, and a contact rate of just above 60%. Most major leaguers are over 70%, average hitters 75-85%, and the best are above 85%.  His walk to strikeout ratio went from a near elite 100% to a low 33%.  

And he was quickly approaching the best in early June.  For a 15 game stretch, starting June 2nd, he was at a roughly 84% contact rate.  He batted .382/.469/.636/1.105, with 9 walks vs 9 strikeouts, in 64 PA/55 AB. 

So, now he will have to adjust back.  But so far, he seems to be striking out even more with each few games.  He just struck out 3 times in his last game, 6 out of his last four games.  And hitting very poorly.  Might be time to give him another break to work on this new problem.