The Giants recalled Marco Luciano and Luis Matos from Triple-A Sacramento this afternoon. San Francisco optioned Blake Sabol and Casey Schmitt in corresponding strikes. Luciano is in tonight’s lineup at second base in opposition to Arizona’s Ryne Nelson. Plainly’ll be a frequent incidence this month.
Supervisor Bob Melvin instructed reporters this night that the Giants will play Luciano usually on the keystone for the season’s closing few weeks (relayed on X by Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports activities Bay Space). Tonight’s begin there would be the 22-year-old’s first second base motion within the large leagues.
Luciano isn’t any stranger to the center infield. He has began 19 MLB video games at shortstop over the past two years. He has almost 2500 shortstop innings within the minors. Luciano has made 27 appearances at second base in his minor league profession, all however six of which have come this season with Sacramento.
Regardless of his ample shortstop expertise, the rookie infielder struggled on the place earlier within the 12 months. He was charged with 5 errors in solely 60 innings. Luciano’s fielding proportion sat at a dismal .865, and whereas that nearly actually would’ve risen in a bigger pattern, the frequency of the errors led the Giants to shortly determine that he wasn’t prepared for on a regular basis shortstop work. San Francisco flirted with enjoying him at designated hitter after the Jorge Soler deadline commerce. That didn’t final lengthy both, and he has all of 48 plate appearances over 17 MLB video games this 12 months.
The Giants’ playoff hopes have been all however formally ended, so the following few weeks are primarily about analysis. Luciano’s growth is among the group’s key storylines. Scouting reviews have lengthy touted his uncooked energy, however that has but to translate in opposition to higher degree pitching. Luciano has 4 extra-base hits (three doubles and a triple) in 31 profession large league contests. He solely has 10 homers with a .250/.380/.380 batting line over 384 plate appearances within the Pacific Coast League this 12 months. A near-17% stroll charge has pushed an enormous on-base mark, however he’s putting out 27% of the time with out making a lot of an influence affect.
Luciano is a couple of days shy of his twenty third birthday, so there’s nonetheless loads of time for him to determine issues out. The Giants haven’t given him any form of constant run in opposition to MLB pitching prior to now. That stated, his pedestrian higher minors manufacturing and the continued questions on his long-term defensive house go away rather a lot unsettled.
Acclimating properly to second base may at the very least deal with the latter query. The Giants are going to wish a long-term answer on the place. Thairo Estrada has held the job for the previous three-plus years. He has had a really poor ’24 marketing campaign, although, and the Giants outrighted him off the roster final week. Estrada stays within the group for now, however the Giants will nearly actually transfer on in the course of the upcoming offseason: both by permitting him to elect minor league free company or declining to tender him an arbitration contract.
Luciano might want to tighten issues up defensively if he’s to stay on the infield in any respect. Scouts’ questions on his probabilities of enjoying shortstop have been extra about his arms and lateral mobility than any points together with his arm power. 4 of his 5 errors on the place have been of the fielding selection. That’d be problematic irrespective of the place he’s on the dust, although maybe transferring off the infield’s most demanding spot would permit him to be extra snug.
