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Bryce Eldridge (17) Sacramento River Cats vs Round Rock Express in a Triple-A PCL game at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas on Sunday, September 15, 2024 (Photo by Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)
The Giants promoted first baseman Bryce Eldridge to Triple-A Sacramento on Saturday.
Eldridge already has 10 plate appearances in Triple-A. He’s likely to finish the week with 30+ Triple-A plate appearances.
If he even gets to 20 plate appearances, Eldridge, the Giants’ 2023 first-round pick, will become only the third high school draftee of the 21st century to see that much Triple-A playing time in the year following their draft selection.
But he’s potentially part of a new trend.
Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, got 91 Triple-A plate appearances last year. Dodgers first baseman Andrew Lambo has the second-most plate Triple-A plate appearances for a prep pick in the following season. He logged 38 with Jacksonville in 2008.
There is one significant caveat to all of these stats. The minors have changed, which have created an incentive for teams to promote players more aggressively.
The reorganization of the minors in 2021 has shuffled and changed how teams move prospects up the ladder. Before that, the MiLB seasons at all full-season levels wrapped up on roughly the same day. In 2019, all full-season leagues wrapped up on Sept. 1 or Sept. 2, and the short-season and rookie league seasons ended around that date as well.
Nowadays, the Double-A season ends a week after the Class A season wraps up. The Triple-A season lasts for another week past the end of the Double-A season.
So if teams want to keep their top prospects playing, it makes sense to move them up another level (or two). There’s little risk of pushing prospects too quickly. One week of games is too short of a sample to expose players who are over their heads. It’s also a useful way to help the players acclimate to their expected starting point for the following season.
With the new schedule, teams are pushing players to higher levels as the Class A season ends to get them a few more games.
The number of high school draftees who are reaching Double-A the following year bears this out. There were three this year who topped 20 Double-A plate appearances (Eldridge, Twins outfielder Walker Jenkins and Phillies shortstop Aidan Miller). There were three last year (Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony,…