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SAN FRANCISCO — On a typical afternoon before a game at the Giants’ waterfront ballpark, the two center-facing televisions in the home clubhouse show scouting video of the opposing pitcher. On Monday afternoon, the screens displayed something starkly different.

Against a jarringly white and unchanging background, one message was intended for a run-starved position-player group that is distantly last in the majors in walks. The other message was for a pitching staff that hasn’t always controlled the strike zone.

Team: SF

OBP: .287

Rank: 30

Team: SF

BB/9: 3.9

Rank: 23

You could look away for one minute or five. The screen didn’t change. It’s a blunt message that the front office and coaching staff clearly wanted to sink in. Change has to happen from within. It doesn’t matter if the Giants are preparing to face a left-hander or a right-hander, a multiple Cy Young Award winner or a fresh-from-Triple-A spot starter. There’s only so much benefit in tailoring your game to a specific starting pitcher when your suit cloth is full of runs and holes.

So yes, as Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey acknowledged, the hope is that promoting Bryce Eldridge and Jesus Rodriguez will provide a spark to a 13-21 team with the least productive lineup in the major leagues. But there’s no hope of turning a corner without a resurgence from the club’s three highest-paid hitters: Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, and Rafael Devers.

“We’re going to need our big three guys to lead us out of this funk and produce the way that we know that they can produce,” Posey said before Monday’s homestand opener against the San Diego Padres. “And hopefully, Bryce and Jesus can come up here and understand that, my opinion, for them to be successful, just go out and continue to play like they’ve been playing in Triple A.”

Eldridge, the franchise’s top hitting prospect, was batting .333 with a .445 on-base percentage and six home runs. Rodriguez was batting .330 with a .400 on-base percentage and more walks (12) than strikeouts (11). There’s plenty that gets lost in translation between hitting numbers in the Pacific Coast League and the major leagues. But the Giants’ investment in lineup continuity was a perceived benefit until it became a liability. After a winless and woeful six-game trip to Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, staying with the status quo wasn’t an option.

So the club promoted Eldridge and Rodriguez. They designated outfielder Jerar Encarnacion, who wasn’t being utilized and committed one distracted mistake after another when given rare chances. They placed left-hander Erik Miller on the 15-day injured list with a lower back strain while creating a roster vacancy for spot starter Trevor McConald. Outfielder Winn Brennan was returned to Triple-A Sacramento as well. As a result, the Giants’ bench doesn’t include a full-time backup outfielder to Heliot Ramos, Drew Gilbert and Jung Hoo Lee. But Rodriguez can also play second base and the outfield in addition to catcher.

Rodriguez started at catcher Monday while making his major-league debut and he has the opportunity to hit his way into the playing rotation at the position, potentially taking time away from two-time Gold Glove winner (and .152 hitter) Patrick Bailey. There could be a tougher decision to make with Bailey in a week or two — perhaps even an option back to Triple-A Sacramento — when rookie catcher Daniel Susac (inflamed right elbow nerve) is expected to be cleared to return from the IL.

“Let’s take it day to day and see how it looks and make a decision,” Posey said. “Not go too far in advance with that one.”

For now, Rodriguez’s versatility greatly improves the functionality of a bench that both Posey and Giants manager Tony Vitello and Posey acknowledge has been underutilized. Backup infielder Christian Koss is capable of playing an outfield corner as well. Backup catcher Eric Haase, who remained on the roster, has an outfielder’s glove, too. And Vitello said that there’s been discussion about the outfield as an eventual way to keep Casey Schmitt’s bat in the lineup.

Schmitt, who can play every infield position, has been the Giants’ most productive hitter this season. So it would make little sense for Schmitt’s opportunities to be most curtailed by Monday’s additions. This raises one of the most important questions put to Vitello on Monday: With Eldridge and Devers limited to first base and designated hitter, how will they keep Schmitt involved?

The answer on Monday was for Chapman to take a seat — and it paid off, as Schmitt started at third base and hit a home run in his first at-bat. On Tuesday, it could be Adames. Devers, who played in 163 games last season, should expect the occasional break, too.

“It’s time to drop our guard down and get a fresh start to the season and … and sort out the puzzle of how do we involve everybody?” Vitello said. “The negative to that is going to be, call it ego or pride or whatever … there’s going to be days when they’re not playing, but the benefit of that is, when they are playing, they’re not going to have any excuses, and not that they have, but they’re going to be fresh of mind and fresh of body.”

Vitello met with the team after Sunday’s loss at Tropicana Field and announced that changes were coming. He did not mince words.

“There was a lot of things to talk about,” Vitello said. “It’s not like we can change out like a hockey team and get nine fresh guys out there, but it’d be good to have some fresh legs. … There was a lot said in the last couple days, and it’s time for us to push forward. Not just the coaches, but everybody should have a little bit of edge to them. Our fanbase deserves that at the very least, but also, what we’ve done is not working. So there’s got to be a change in mentality, attitude, and then the actions that go with it, too. You just can’t have thoughts.”

There might come a time when the message to players needs to come from Posey. For now, he said he’s confident that Vitello said what needed to be said.

“Tony addressed them last night and I don’t think, based on what I’ve heard, that there’s probably a need right now,” Posey said.

How would Posey evaluate Vitello’s performance under trying circumstances?

“It’s been a less-than-ideal start for the way we have played as a team (for) a guy coming in that understandably was going to be under the microscope,” Posey said. “But I’ve been pleased with my interactions with him. He is a fiery guy but he does a really good job getting stuff out after a game, good or bad, and turning the page to the next one.”

It was a major question from the moment the Giants made Vitello the first college head coach with no professional experience to move directly to a major-league dugout: How would he exercise authority with veteran players? Vitello made this much clear during his pregame session with reporters on Monday: The time for playing patty cake is over.

“I’ll gladly take the brunt of anything, because if I’ve picked up on the scent, a lot these guys have let other people write narratives for them, either literally on paper or just mentally, a little too much,” Vitello said. “If anything, I’ve been a little too back on the heels and given a little bit too much freedom either for leaders to do things or, you know, ‘This is what we got at second base today, or at the plate,’ and ‘If you guys want to do this or that, or what’s best for you.’ So I think it’s the opposite at this point.”

Last year, the Giants didn’t introduce a major roster shakeup until the first week of June when the team hit an offensive lull. That’s when Posey designated his former teammate, LaMonte Wade Jr., and the team signed first baseman Dom Smith. This season, the struggles arrived more than a month earlier. So did the changes.

Eldridge will start at least two games in the series against the Padres, said Vitello, and the expectation is that he’s here to play.

“We have a group of hitters that have potential, but we haven’t had anything click or getting the right rhythm,” Vitello said. “We’ve tried a few different things. Bryce has earned the right to be at this level. If anything, he’ll change it up and there’s potential to add a spark. But all we’re looking for him to do is be who he is.”

It’s not ideal for an organization to call up its top hitting prospect while the big-league team is reeling. But Posey and Vitello expressed confidence that Eldridge has the maturity to handle it.

“I just take into consideration what I’ve learned about the person in the last year and a half or so,” Posey said. “He’s a pretty mature 21-year-old. His head is in the right place about what he wants to be. He wants to be a winning baseball player. I haven’t asked him, like, ‘Are you feeling like you have to resuscitate the offense?’ I’d be willing to bet he’s smart enough (to know) that it’s not all him.

“I believe he has the chance to be an impact bat. He has the ability to drive the ball to all parts of the field. His ability to drive the ball from center to left-center with power is about as good as there is out there.”

Eldridge also has struck out 41 times in 114 at-bats. Giants officials were hoping to see more progress with what otherwise portends to be a troublesome issue against major-league pitching. But they are 13-21 and already seven games off the pace for the third and final NL wild card spot, so the development timeline required some amendments.

Eldridge acknowledged the strikeouts but said he isn’t too concerned about them.

“I think a big thing for me was taking my walks,” Eldridge said. “Getting on base is huge for me. Being a power guy, you start to realize (Triple-A pitchers) are trying to pitch around me more than attacking me at that level. And being a power guy, there’s strikeouts involved and whatnot. You can say you want about that, but if I’m getting on base, if I’m walking, I think it all evens out.”

Shortly after Eldridge packed up his rental house in Sacramento, drove to San Francisco and walked into the clubhouse, he saw Jared Oliva. The injured outfielder asked him how he’s been feeling at the plate.

“I’m feeling sexy at the plate right now,” Eldridge told him. “Obviously, this is a different ballgame, but it’s not. It’s the same ballgame. Just gonna keep trying to trust myself and trust my teammates, and that’ll bring me a long way.”

And maybe help the Giants flip the channel to something more satisfying.

Vitello has spent so much of his initial months as a major-league manager talking about clubhouse vibes and keeping them positive. But good vibes become a feint when they stop reflecting reality. So there was no escaping those TV screens in the clubhouse. This is the team the Giants have been for the first 20 percent of the season. When the path gets rockiest, that’s when it’s most important to understand exactly where you stand.

This article originally appeared in .

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