👀 Top Power Prospect Gets The Call

Plus: 10 Statcast Standouts, Cameron Cauley's day to remember, RoboScout rankings & more.

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Bryce Eldridge, 1B, Giants: With the Giants just 1.5 games out of the final National League playoff spot, they're adding a significant power boost. San Francisco will call up first baseman Bryce Eldridge, the No. 19 prospect in the game, for his MLB debut as first reported by Susan Slusser.

Eldridge is the team's best power prospect. He has hit 25 home runs this year, as he's hit .260/.333/.510 between Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento. Less noticed, but potentially as important, Eldridge has improved some of his defensive issues at first base.

Eldridge had a hard-to-believe 18 errors at first base last season. This year, he's cut that in half to nine. That's still a quite high number for a first baseman, but he made five of them in his 25 games at first base in Richmond, while he's committed four errors in 66 games at first for Sacramento.

Last month, Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey deemed a 2025 debut from Eldridge as unlikely. The Giants had fallen as low as seven games under .500 on Aug. 22. But San Francisco is 14-6 over its last 20 games, and the team also lost incumbent first baseman Dom Smith to a hamstring strain, opening a path to steady at-bats for Eldridge as the Giants try to overtake the reeling Mets in the wild card.

Sal Stewart, 1B, Reds: Stewart is doing a solid job of putting a claim in on the Reds' first base job. In just his 10th game in the majors, Stewart hit his third MLB homer with a 417-foot shot to left center field off Justin Sterner. Stewart has always been a polished hitter in the minors, but so far in the majors, he's been a power-first slugger. Three of his eight MLB hits are home runs, and he's yet to walk, or hit a double or triple. Stewart is hitting .250/.250/.531 so far in his brief MLB career. He hit .309/.383/.524 in the minors this year.

Nolan McLean, RHP, Mets: The Mets are struggling in the race for the final National League wild card spot, but the rookie righthander is doing everything he can to get the Mets to October. McLean held the Rangers to five hits in six scoreless innings as he lowered his MLB ERA to 1.19. The Mets' bullpen then blew the lead, but New York rallied to win in extra innings 5-2. McLean walked two and struck out seven. In six starts, he's worked into the sixth inning every time, and he's yet to allow more than two runs in any outing. This was his third time working 5.1 or more innings without allowing a run. McLean didn't get a lot of whiffs on Sunday, but he stayed ahead of hitters with his sweeper and sinker.

Cameron Cauley, SS/OF, Rangers: In the final game of the 2025 regular season, Double-A Frisco center fielder/shortstop Cam Cauley had a game to remember. Cauley went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and three RBIs on Sunday. He missed out on the cycle because he hit two home runs to go with his double and triple. Cauley doubled in the first and then homered in the second inning. He then tripled in the fourth. He came to the plate in the sixth needing a single to hit for the cycle, but he flied out to left field. With the game tied 4-4 with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, Cauley came to the plate again with Marcus Smith standing on second base. An RBI single would not only give Frisco the win, but also give Cauley a cycle. Instead, he hit a walk-off two-run homer to left field.

Ryan Waldschmidt, OF, D-backs: Waldschmidt homered twice in a three-hit game against Double-A Midland in the regular season finale for both teams. It was Waldschmidt's eighth and ninth home runs at Double-A, giving him a perfect symmetry to his season. He hit nine home runs in 68 games at High-A Hillsboro before he was promoted to Double-A this year, and he hit nine in 66 games after the promotion. His overall numbers at Double-A were a bit better than High-A, as he hit .309/.423/.498 for Amarillo, raising his total slash line for the season to .289/.419/.473.

Yonatan Henriquez, OF, Mets: The Mets promoted Henriquez to High-A Brooklyn just last week after he hit .264/.354/.395 for Low-A St. Lucie. On Sunday, he starred in the opener of the Carolina League championship series. Henriquez teamed with Marco Vargas to lead Brooklyn to the series-opening win over Hub City. Batting leadoff, Vargas went 5-for-5 with three runs scored. Batting second, Henriquez went 4-for-6 with two runs scored, six RBIs including a three-run second-inning homer. That gave Brooklyn a 4-1 lead, and from there the rout was on. Brooklyn scored eight times in the fifth on its way to a 13-1 win. The Cyclones need just one win in the next two games to claim the league championship.

Brice Matthews, SS/2B, Astros: Matthews went 3-for-6 with a pair of home runs on Sunday as Triple-A Sugar Land routed Round Rock 10-2. Matthews' second-inning shot was a 386-foot, 98.7 mph homer that just cleared the fence to reach the berm in left field. He went back to left field again in the fourth inning, but this time, he added another 30 feet with a 110.7 mph blast to bounce off the facade of the second deck. Matthews is finishing up a solid season that saw him hit .258/.365/.455 with 16 home runs and 36 steals for Sugar Land. He also made his MLB debut with a brief 11-game stint with Houston.

Editor’s Picks

10 Statcast Standouts: This week’s data deep dive includes an Angels outfielder who could make a charge for 2026 AL Rookie of the Year. Read more…

RoboScout: After a fresh Statcast data dump, RoboScout identifies over a dozen interesting targets to track before it’s too late. Read more…

Edward Florentino: Showing a rare blend of talent and off-the-field outreach, Edward Florentino has become one of the most compelling young talents in the Pirates’ system. Read more…

Baseball America Helium Pick Of The Day

Each day, we’ll pick a prospect that has our attention.

Kelvis Salcedo, RHP, Tigers: The Tigers only put Salcedo into the Low-A Lakeland rotation for two starts at the end of the season. But after he threw eight scoreless innings in those two outings, he was given the ball for Game 1 of the Florida State League championship series.

He responded by holding Daytona to one hit and one run in five innings. Salcedo has a solid pitch mix with a mid-90s fastball and a hard cutter and slider. He retired the first 15 batters he faced, taking a perfect game into the sixth. He was pulled after he hit the first batter of the sixth and then allowed a single to Ichiro Cano.

After that single, a trainer was called to the mound and Salcedo left the game with an undisclosed injury.

That runner on second eventually scored, but it was an excellent outing for Salcedo. That proved to be the only hit and only run the Tortugas scored in the 6-1 Lakeland win.

Quick Hits

Prospect news and notes from around baseball…

  • Blue Jays RHP Trey Yesavage will make his first big league start today against the Rays.

  • Cubs outfielder Owen Caissie is on the injured list with a concussion. As a result, Chicago recalled fellow outfielder Kevin Alcantara.

  • Travis Bazzana is back on the Triple-A injured list with left flank soreness.

  • Cardinals RHP Chen-Wei Lin struck out nine Double-A batters over four scoreless, hitless innings on Sunday. The 6-foot-7 righty was promoted to the upper minors in late August and has a 1.29 ERA and 15 strikeouts over his last seven innings.

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