Former San Francisco Giants Top Prospect Enters Make-or-Break Year

The San Francisco Giants once had high hopes for shortstop Marco Luciano, at times one of the most highly ranked prospects in the sport. But time may be running thin for Luciano to make an impact for the club.

Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report listed Luciano among seven former top prospects who are entering make-or-break years in 2025, and there is little question that that is the case for the Giants infielder.

The door is likely already shut for Luciano to be the team's shortstop of the future, as president of baseball operations Buster Posey put his stamp on the roster in a major way when he signed Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182 million contract to lock down that spot for the years to come.

Adames is undoubtedly one of the best middle infielders in the league, and if Luciano is going to live up to his past promise, it's going to have to come as a corner outfielder, a change that Luciano himself has embraced ahead of spring training.

With veteran Matt Chapman entrenched at third base and Tyler Fitzgerald looking promising at second, the other infield spots that Luciano is physically equipped to play are unavailable

During his time with Triple-A Sacramento in 2024, Luciano produced a triple slash line of .250/.380/.380 and was good for a wRC+ of 99, according to Fangraphs, which means he was essentially a league average hitter at that level.

Luciano, who peaked at No. 13 on MLB.com's top 100 prospect rankings in 2022, has had his plate discipline and vision exposed to a devastating degree in his stints in the Major Leagues.

In 126 plate appearances across 41 games with San Francisco, Luciano has struck out at a 35.7% clip. In 2024, not a single qualified hitter in the league fared worse than 34.4%.

Luciano's career slugging percentage of .303 is nowhere close to offsetting his inability to put the ball in play, and his defense has not been a positive, either. In 67 innings at second base last season, he was worth -2 runs of fielding value and -3 outs above average.

But while things have not gone according to plan so far, Luciano still has all of the physical tools that made him one of the most well regarded prospects in the game, and at just 23 years of age, there is still time for him to build his game to the point where he could be a contributor for San Francisco.

Just because it will not be as the starting shortstop due to the presence of Adames does not mean that Luciano can not carve out a productive career as a rangy outfielder patrolling Oracle Park's expansive grass with some power upside to boot.

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