Giants Top Prospect Might Be Best Chance To Improve Team at First Base

It has been an extremely successful start to the season for the San Francisco Giants, and the franchise must be thinking about ways to improve before the trade deadline.

The Giants have been one of the biggest surprises in baseball this year, with the team currently right in the mix for first place in the National League West.

To start the campaign, San Francisco was pretty much expected to finish in fourth place in their division behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks.

However, with the Diamondbacks struggling and recently losing their ace for the rest of the season and then some, they might end up being a seller.

Now, the Giants have an excellent opportunity to not only try and make the playoffs but to also compete for a division title.

Even though the team has done very well, they will likely need some help to reach those goals.

How Can Giants Improve at First Base?

Bradford Doolittle of ESPN (subscription required) recently wrote about the biggest need for the Giants being to upgrade at first base, but that is appearing to be quite the challenge.

“The obvious area for a major upgrade: first base, where the Giants have already shuffled the mix by DFA'ing LaMonte Wade Jr. Big corner bats among likely off-loaders appear to be in short supply, so Buster Posey will have to get creative.”

The most obvious need for San Francisco to improve their team is to find some positive production at first base. This year, it has mostly been LaMonte Wade Jr. at the position, but he was recently designated for assignment after a dreadful start to the campaign.

Replacing him so far has been Dominic Smith, and time will tell if he ends up being more productive for the team offensively.

More than likely, the team will be seeking out some upgrades on the trade market, but talented first basemen generally aren’t available during the summer. This is going to be a challenging position for the team to improve externally with a trade, but they might have an internal option to consider in the coming months.

Recently, top prospect Bryce Eldridge was promoted to Triple-A after an excellent start to the campaign in the minors.

The top prospect in the organization comes with a ton of power, and if he’s ready, the position is wide open for the taking.

However, San Francisco must be wise and not rush the youngster up to the Majors just because they need help at first base.

Ideally, he continues to produce well in the minors and proves that he is ready to help this summer in the Majors.

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