Marco Luciano is no longer a Giant, having been claimed by the Pirates on waivers a while back (started right after, but been busy with family stuff, good stuff).
ogc thoughts
Quite a dud of an ending, getting put on waivers, not even picking up anything in return for him.
On that note, that’s a bit different from how Sabean handled losing top prospects before. He traded Salomon Torres to get Sean Estes. And he leveraged Jesse Foppert (and another prospect) to get Randy Winn. Of course, he did not get much for Jerome Williams, a good reliever for less than a season, so your mileage will vary.
But that’s also because Luciano got moldy on the prospect vine. He could have been a great trade chip when he was more highly rated, but then the Giants would have risked losing a 30 homer hitter. They have generally kept their top prospects until they time out on options. That worked really well during 3 in 5.
And that’s what makes many Giants fans angry right now, getting nothing for him, not even cash considerations.
Giants Did Okay by Luciano
Unlike others, I thought the Giants did their best. No team knows for sure how their top prospects will turn out. Else #1 overall prospects would never fail, like Sean Burroughs did, and other top prospects.
Overall, I would say he was a victim of three problems. First was losing a season of development due to the pandemic season. Second was losing all that development time due to his injuries, like his back. With all that missing time, 500-1,000 PA, his bat would have been much more developed by now, with roughly two more seasons’ worth of playing time. Third, in spite of the missing time, the Giants were forced to put him on the 40-man roster. But he wasn’t fully ready, and thus rushed some because of the missed time.
Despite that missed time and being rushed, he was still projected to be a mid-600’s hitter by ZiPS for 2024, which works well enough for an average NL shortstop. I believe the Giants were using SS as a path to getting him more MLB playing time and hopefully develop his bat enough so he can move elsewhere later. Even ZiPS didn’t see him as horrible at SS, projected him at -2 for half a season, which rates out at -4 for a season, which is not good, but not horrible either.
Who knew that he would suddenly lose it defensively, like he did. It was like a Little League game when he was in the infield. If he simply fielded like he had for his pro career, he would have been playable defensively. Instead, the Giants were forced to move him to the OF, which possibly crushed his confidence, given how he didn’t hit that well in AAA.
He likely had a bad 2025 season due to three reasons. First was adjusting to playing the OF. Second was being mad at not playing SS anymore. Third was probably he was not happy with the Giants either and simply frustrated with his situation, though ultimately it was his failure to handle simple grounders at SS that caused everything. It added up to a lost 2025 season.
Luciano Changing Position
Many fans are saying that Luciano should have been changed from a shortstop long ago, because most evaluators have said that he’s not a shortstop. That’s the thing: the narrative is that many thought he was not a Shortstop, when it was more like, he is not a Shortstop long term is what I read.
And as noted, he wasn’t horrible defensively as a SS until he suddenly was. There is no way to project that. And being a SS gave him a path to the majors sooner with the ticking clock towards his last option season. The Giants basically had no choice but to keep him at SS, in hopes that they can then let him earn an MLB starting spot, and get more experience hitting against MLB pitchers.
Sad Ending But It Is What It Is
I’m still hopeful he can make it in the majors.
Especially if the Pirates give him a long leash at DH, he can do what Bart did, be a great hitter in Pittsburgh while being subpar on the road, which makes him playable enough. Also, he simply needs a change in scenery, which should help as well. Getting older and wiser will probably help as well.
The Giants will look bad, no matter what, and even stupid, if he develops, but I feel that they did nothing wrong, other than that period where he was in the majors and yet not playing, as some have noted. That’s a minor issue compared to the loss of games played due to COVID and his back issues
If they moved him to another position, he would have been a drag on the offense, because he would have been very subpar, as bad as Bailey, only with poor to mediocre defense value, and fans would have been mad at the Giants for playing him. They rushed him only because the rules forced them to rush him, due to missing key development in 2020 and battling various injuries. And if they didn’t, then they would never see him in the majors before having to put him on waivers, and they need to see that given how much he was paid.
It simply didn’t work out, I don’t think the Giants could have handled his development much better. Changing his position would not have sped up his development or made it better. If anything, he could have been unhappy sooner being moved off SS. And Covid and injuries took away important and significant batting reps that would have solidified his bat sooner. It is what it is, a failure, but I don’t think the Giants could have done much better for Luciano, he just missed so much development time due to Covid and his back problems.
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