San Francisco Giants Spring Breakout Opponent Features Familiar Manager

The San Francisco Giants will get the chance to show off their best prospect talent against a team led by one of their former managers.

Jul 14, 2019; Milwaukee, WI, USA; San Francisco Giants hat and glove in the dug out at Miller Park. / Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports

The Spring Breakout games are meant to be Major League Baseball’s way of showcasing its best prospect talent, but the San Francisco Giants drew a team led by a familiar face.

The Giants will host the Texas Rangers on March 15 in Scottsdale, Ariz., with the game time and rosters to be named later.

The Rangers, of course, are led by manager Bruce Bochy, who has won more than 2,000 career games and led San Francisco to three World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

It’s not clear if Bochy will manage in the game, though. This past spring Bochy had one of his coaches handle the managing duties for the Spring Breakout game. If that’s the case he’ll miss his chance, most likely, to see the Giants’ top prospect, first baseman Bryce Eldridge.

Eldridge was one of three San Francisco teammates named as Top 100 prospects when MLB Pipeline re-ranked players earlier this week. The other Top 100 players are pitcher Hayden Birdsong and outfielder James Tibbs III.

Birdsong probably won’t be a part of next year’s game. He’s in the Majors right now and is probably going to pitch enough to graduate from prospect rankings.

But Eldridge is at High-A Eugene and is probably at least a year away from challenging for Major League playing time.

But the Spring Breakout game did its job when it debuted in March.

From those Breakout games 95 participating players have made it to the Majors, and 35 of them have been MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects. When the MLB Futures Game was held last month during All-Star Game weekend, 48 of the 54 players in the game participated in Spring Breakout.

The Giants sent one player to the Futures Game — Eldridge. So an appearance in next year’s game would be his second.

For Tibbs, it would be his first Breakout game, if he’s selected. The rosters won’t be named until March, in part because some prospects could be competing for MLB jobs. San Francisco selected the Florida State outfielder in the first round last month and he landed just inside the Top 100 prospects list.

Three other draft picks ended up in the Giants’ new Top 30 prospects list — outfielder Dakota Jordan (fourth round), third baseman Robert Hipwell (sixth round) and outfielder Jakob Christian (fifth round).

Another prospect worth tracking for next year’s game is pitcher Jacob Bresnahan, who joined the Giants in July as part of the trade that sent Alex Cobb to the Cleveland Guardians. He is now a Top 30 Giants prospect.