SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants’ roster is probably in the right spot after all, but once again, they’re facing a bad showing.
The 22-year-old was sent back to the minor leagues two weeks after the Giants announced they had traded Jorge Soler to the Atlanta Braves for designated hitter Marco Luciano. Luciano appeared in seven games and only had 21 at-bats before being optioned down Wednesday when center fielder Grant McCray was promoted from Triple-A Sacramento for the first time.
The Giants decided to change course again. For now, McCray will strengthen the outfield and Michael Conforto and Gerard Encarnacion will take the designated hits that would have gone to Luciano in the second half. Asked about Luciano’s short leash, manager Bob Melvin noted that Encarnacion has a good swing and Mark Caña is also at bat.
“Things can change quickly, and we try to put together the best lineup and the best reinforcements for the day,” Melvin said. “At that point, it was easy to get Luciano more at-bats, but that suddenly went away.”
When Soler was traded, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said the staff “wanted to give some opportunities to our young players, especially Luciano,” and while the promising prospect was at the forefront, there were signs that more changes were coming that day.
Zaidi was looking to bolster his center field defense before the deadline, and when asked on the Giants Talk podcast which minor leaguers he thought would immediately join Luciano, he quickly named Encarnacion and McCray. In the end, McCray took Luciano’s spot, which gave the roster more balance, but left one of the franchise’s best prospects once again wondering what his future holds.
Luciano was recalled at the trade deadline and has appeared in just six games since, going 4-for-21 with one double and nine strikeouts. He returned after a week absence against Chris Sale on Monday, but his most memorable moment was one he’d rather forget.
Luciano stopped running after a liner to third base was dropped, which was not the reason for his removal from the game, but it was unpleasant for team staff who viewed him as a young player who still needed to develop his game feel before he could contribute at the major league level.
Luciano will now play every day at Triple-A and move back to shortstop and second base, although the Giants have already decided that he doesn’t see a future at shortstop at the major league level and don’t think he’s good enough at second base at the moment.
Even though Encarnacion and Caña batted as designated hitters, second base appeared to be open. Casey Schmidt (1-for-27) and Brett Wisely (3-for-21) have struggled since the deadline, while Luciano has not had a chance to play at second base.
“Basically, we didn’t want to put him through that right now,” Melvin said. “He’s just started playing second base for a while and he wanted some help hitting more than anything and we thought maybe we could take a little bit of the strain off him defensively.”
This roster configuration should give Melvin more options — McCray played center, Ramos in left and Conforto as the designated hitter on Wednesday — and the Giants’ outfield is playing its best since the Zaidi era, so the hope is that McCray can bring some speed to a lineup that has suffered three straight one-run losses and has struggled to hit the small ball when it needed to.
Ramos was phenomenal at the plate but was not a good fit in center field, so McCray will be the one to fill in for now, and Melvin said Ramos might have some easy days as a designated hitter, but for the most part he’ll be paired with some veterans.
Despite their struggles, the Giants are still close to the third wild card spot in the National League, but they are desperate for wins, and Luciano has been caught in the crossfire just days after finally being expected to play a long-term role.
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