Bryce Eldridge is in the kind of stretch that tests a young hitter’s patience, but the Giants’ 21-year-old rookie says he’s meeting it with a steadier head than he did a year ago.
Eldridge has been stuck in a prolonged slump for nearly two months, with the last real peak coming on June 17, when he homered against the Atlanta Braves and pushed his OPS to .962, his best mark of the season. Since then, the numbers have tumbled. Over his last 45 games, he’s hit .195/.290/.341, and his OPS has slid to .770.
That downturn has pulled down his season line to .245 with 12 home runs and 29 RBIs. But Eldridge says the biggest difference between now and last summer is how he’s carrying the struggle.
“Last year, I was a mess when I was going through a really bad slump,” Eldridge said. “I feel like I’m kind of going through the same thing now, but I’ve been handling it a lot better.
I’ve learned from that mistake last year. I found myself in a really deep hole that felt impossible to get out of.
“Even at the lowest of lows, I always come out of it. So, being able to recognize that and having gone through it last year has been really big for me this year in me keeping my confidence.”
That earlier slump came after Eldridge reached Triple-A Sacramento in early June last year. He opened with a .135 average over his first 10 games there, then finished that month at .230 with a .710 OPS and called himself a “nightmare.”
Now, with more experience under his belt, he says he can see the value in having already lived through a rough patch. He’s also leaned on teammates such as Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Logan Webb for support.
Manager Tony Vitello sees the same kind of resilience in the way Eldridge is approaching the grind.
“The best players I’ve ever been around are problem solvers,” said manager Tony Vitello. “Part of the problem at this level is it’s just day in and day out. Grind is the obvious cliché word, and a little bit of variation on how to do that, but I think he’s been pretty good overall.”
The main issue, at least statistically, is a spike in whiffs. When the Giants first brought Eldridge up, he was missing less often than he had in Triple-A, where his whiff rate sat around 34 percent.
In May, that number was 23.3 percent, and it was 22.7 percent in June. But the trend has gone the wrong way since then, climbing to 27.8 percent in July and reaching 32.3 percent in August entering Wednesday.
What’s notable is that he’s not chasing more pitches outside the zone. In fact, that has gone the other direction.
Eldridge’s chase rate was 29.9 percent in May, and it has dropped each month since. Entering Wednesday, it was 22.4 percent in August.
The bigger change appears to be what’s coming at him inside the zone. In May and June, about a quarter of the pitches Eldridge saw were fastballs in the strike zone. That share rose to 27.4 percent in June and has climbed to 34.4 percent in August.
“It’s been a little frustrating because I’ve been seeing it well, getting deep in counts, haven’t been chasing,” Eldridge said. “I’ve just kind of been missing the ball. That’s part of it, but I know I’ll get out of it because I’m swinging at good pitches.”
Vitello said the challenge is hardly a mystery, especially with the amount of information teams now have at their disposal.
“There’s more information out there now,” Vitello said. “I think it’s kind of been the same theme, though, what guys want to try to do to him. It’s how well can they do it, and maybe how much more data or analytics do they have to support how they want to go about it.”
Eldridge said he doesn’t want to make major adjustments in the middle of the season. For now, the goal is simpler: get back to feeling right at the plate. He still believes the timing and rhythm will return, and he also knows he’s been through worse.
He isn’t pretending the slump is fun. But he is certain it won’t define him.
“Going through those struggles built me for this year, and these struggles will build me better for next year,” Eldridge said. “So, as long as I can keep that mentality and that attitude, I think I’m going to keep getting better as a person and as a player.”
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