Add The California Post on Google SAN FRANCISCO — When the field for next week’s Home Run Derby is revealed, it won’t include Bryce Eldridge.
After all, it would be pretty outlandish for MLB to extend an invite to a 21-year-old with seven career homers, and he confirmed to the Post he hasn’t been asked.
But if the league office comes calling down the road?
“I’d say so,” the Giants’ star rookie first baseman said. “I think if anyone got the opportunity to do it, they’d be a fool not to do it. It is, like, one of the coolest things you can do as a player, in my opinion.”
And why wouldn’t the 6-foot-7 slugger be presented the opportunity one day?
Already, with a mere 57 games and 226 plate appearances in the big leagues, he has proven the prodigious power that made him one of the game’s top prospects plays at its highest level.
Look no further than his gargantuan blast that cleared the bullpens at Coors Field over the weekend. Albeit with a mile-high asterisk, that was measured at an impressive 458 feet, breaking his own record for the longest home run hit by a Giant this season.
Sure, Rafael Devers one-upped him a day later, with a 463-footer that landed in the upper deck. But Eldridge still has claim to some bragging rights: That was the first time Devers has sent a ball soaring further than 450 feet this season.
Eldridge is one of only seven players around the league to do it twice.
That company alone would make for an enticing Derby field: Kyle Schwarber, the only slugger with three homers of at least 450 feet; Junior Caminero, the first confirmed participant; as well as the A’s modern-day Bash Brothers, Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz, young Cardinals star Jordan Walker and Cam Smith, the raw but tantalizing outfielder for the Astros.
Of the group, Eldridge and Smith are the only ones with fewer than 20 homers. And in Eldridge’s case, he has seen about half as many pitches (796) as the other six (1,486, on average), having only been called up after the calendar turned to May.
Since the day he arrived, Eldridge has made it clear that all this — his meteoric rise, the mammoth blasts and immediate star turn — is part of something larger he envisioned for himself since he was young. And, yes, that manifest destiny, he hopes, extends to the Home Run Derby.
“At least for me, growing up, I wanted to watch the Derby more than I wanted to watch the All-Star Game,” Eldridge said. “If that was ever something that I was offered to do, I’d be happy to do it.”
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Frankly, would it be so insane for that dream to realize itself this year? Last year, MLB invited the Brewers’ young lightning rod, Jacob Misiorowski, to pitch in the All-Star Game after making only six starts but flashing a fastball that touched an unprecedented 105 mph.
Couldn’t Eldridge bring a similar infusion of youth and excitement to the Derby? It can hardly be considered hallowed grounds, given the changes coming this year (a move to Netflix, reverting back to an outs-based format from the time limit that had been in place since 2015).
Or, even better … how about 2028 at Oracle Park?
Eldridge may not punch his ticket to the City of Brotherly Love, but the Giants are sending some representatives to Philly with the 2028 Midsummer Classic on their minds.
San Francisco could host the festivities for the first time since 2007 if major-league players work out an agreement to compete in the coinciding 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
By then, Eldridge may just be entering his prime — ready to unleash fury on the flotilla of kayakers in McCovey Cove like none of the entrants was able to two decades prior.
“That’d be sick,” Eldridge said. “It’s a good place to hit — hit it out to right.”
You don’t have to tell the young Washington Nationals fan the power of a hometown Derby hero.
Eldridge was 13 years old when he watched Bryce Harper belt 19 homers in the final round to beat Schwarber and become the third player to win the Derby in his home ballpark.
“That was my guy,” Eldridge said. “I think his dad was throwing to him, which was pretty cool. Had a crazy comeback, so I remember that pretty well.”
