The San Francisco Giants are calling up one of their top prospects as they try to tighten their grip on a postseason spot. Shortstop Marco Luciano will join the team in time for Wednesday night's game against the Oakland Athletics, the team announced. He was recently promoted from Double-A and has played only six games in Triple-A.
Luciano, 22 in September, slashed .228/.339/.450 with 11 home runs but also a 29.8% strikeout rate in 56 Double-A games before the recent promotion to Triple-A. The strikeouts are worrisome, though Luciano was an above-average offensive performer while being roughly three years younger than the average player in the Eastern League. He went 7 for 24 (.292) with two homers in Triple-A.
Our R.J. Anderson ranked Luciano the best prospect in San Francisco's system and the No. 15 prospect in baseball entering the season. Here's his write-up:
The book on Luciano remains the same as it's been for a while now: he's a promising hitter who seems highly unlikely to remain at shortstop for the long haul. He had an above-average year at the plate in High-A, batting .263/.339/.459 with 10 home runs and 10 doubles in 57 games. (He was limited by back issues on separate occasions.) Luciano shows off a good arm on defense, but his footwork leaves much to be desired and many evaluators feel he'll eventually have to move to third base. That shouldn't be an issue for him provided that he continues to develop into a plus hitter.
San Francisco is currently without starting middle infielders Brandon Crawford (knee inflammation) and Thairo Estrada (broken hand), forcing them to start rookies Brett Wisely and Casey Schmitt up the middle the last several games. Both have been comfortably below-average hitters. Estrada recently started hitting and fielding work, though he is still several weeks away.
A few weeks ago the Giants received a spark when they called up several prospects, including Schmitt and catcher Patrick Bailey. Including Blake Sabol, who plays left field when he's not backing up Bailey behind the plate, the Giants have three rookies in their starting lineup most nights. Luciano is another talented youngster for the Baby Giants.
The Giants enter play Wednesday with a 55-47 record. They are four games back of the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and a half-game up on the Philadelphia Phillies for the third and final wild-card spot.
