Marco Luciano promoted to High-A

Marco Luciano is moving up in the world. The shortstop, who is unanimously viewed by prospect analysts as the top prospect in the San Francisco Giants organization (and one of the best prospects in baseball) has been promoted to High-A, where he’ll join the Eugene Emeralds.

Luciano — a 19-year old right-handed hitter who was an international free agent signing in 2018 — was tearing the stitches off of the ball for the Low-A San Jose Giants. In 70 games in San Jose he hit .278/.373/.556, while leading the league in home runs with 18. Per Fangraphs hitting metric wRC+, Luciano was hitting 137% as well as the average Low-A hitter. Not bad for a 19 year old.

For now, the Giants figure to keep using Luciano at shortstop, though most expect him to transition off of the position eventually, as he is developing a larger, strong frame (hence the home runs!). Third base could be in his future, and maybe even a spot in the corner of the outfield.

The Giants have been open that they will not hold players back, but also won’t promote just for promotion’s sake. So it will be fun to keep an eye on Luciano in Eugene, to see if he can make enough noise to start whispers of another promotion.