San Francisco Giants call up top prospect Marco Luciano

Jul 26, 2023, 8:25 AM | Updated: 8:33 am

MESA, AZ - NOVEMBER 08, 2021: Marco Luciano #7 of the Scottsdale Scorpions bats during a game again...

(Photo by Chris Bernacchi/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

Lead Editor & Kings Beat Writer

After just six games at the AAA level, Marco Luciano is heading to San Francisco.

Following the Giants’ light-hitting 2-1 win over the lowly Oakland Athletics on Tuesday–the team’s seventh-straight game with three runs or less–reports indicated that San Francisco was considering calling up its top-hitting prospect in Luciano.

Early Wednesday morning, multiple outlets confirmed that the Giants had called up Luciano–a 21-year-old, hard-hitting shortstop from the Dominican Republic.

Luciano has skyrocketed through the minors this season, having batted .235 with 13 home runs, 35 RBI, and a .811 on-base-plus-slugging percentage over 62 games at the AA and AAA levels.

Homer #2 for #2!

Marco Luciano hits a big-league blast, his second in as many games, to left-center field that puts the Cats back in front, 4-2!#JoinTheFun #SacramentoMagic pic.twitter.com/KE7Q7BcALE

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) July 26, 2023

It only took six games with AAA Sacramento for Luciano to get the call, a decision that was easy to make after the prospect mashed two home runs and two doubles while batting .292 over the small sample size.

Luciano is San Francisco’s top-hitting prospect and the number-15 prospect on Major League Baseball’s 2023 Prospect Rankings.

At a time when a struggling Giants lineup needs an offensive boost and stability at the shortstop position, it’s expected that Luciano–much like recent call-up Luis Matos did once he made it to the bigs–will receive the bulk of innings at shortstop right out of the gate.

Brandon Crawford (knee) and Thairo Estrada (hand) are both on the injured list with no precise return dates, while rookie infielder Casey Schmitt has struggled to the tune of a .207 batting average following his explosive MLB debut.

Over the past seven games, San Francisco has hit .154 while scoring 1.6 runs on 4.6 hits per game. The call-up of Luciano will be an attempt to inject some life into a sluggish Giants lineup.

The MLB trade deadline might be next Tuesday (August 1st), but San Francisco isn’t waiting that long to shake up its roster.

Luciano has arrived. Will more runs come with the shortstop?