Here's something San Francisco Giants fans haven't been able to say in a while: the kids are giving us reasons to care.

Rookie catcher Daniel Susac went 3-for-4 on Tuesday, and manager Tony Vitello responded the way any reasonable person would — by suggesting Susac is going to get more playing time. Revolutionary concept, we know: play the guys who are actually hitting the ball.

But the bigger question buzzing around Oracle Park isn't just about Susac. It's about Bryce Eldridge, the Giants' prized prospect who has been tearing through the minor leagues and generating the kind of hype that makes long-suffering fans do dangerous things like feel optimism.

For a franchise that has spent the last few years in a frustrating middle ground — not bad enough to get elite draft picks, not good enough to seriously contend — the prospect pipeline is everything. The Giants tried the free-agent spending spree approach. They tried the veteran reclamation projects. The results have been, charitably, mixed.

What actually builds sustainable winners is developing your own talent and having the organizational courage to let young players take their lumps at the big-league level. The Susac promotion and his immediate impact suggest the front office might finally be leaning into that philosophy rather than clinging to the safety blanket of journeyman veterans.

The Eldridge question is the next test. Do the Giants bring him up when he's ready, or do they play the service-time manipulation game that every front office swears they don't do but somehow keeps happening across baseball?

San Francisco doesn't need another decade-long rebuild. But it does need to stop treating its farm system like a savings account it's afraid to touch. Susac's hot start is a reminder that sometimes the best investment is the one you already made — you just have to let it play.