Top San Francisco Giants International Prospect Attempting Position Change

The San Francisco Giants will likely be seeing a position change for 2018 international free agent signing Marco Luciano.

Per NBC Sports Bay area, he has been reported to be changing to the outfield this offseason after working predominantly as a shortstop and second baseman previously, which is not particularly an easy transition to make.

In his 2,909.1 innings played in the field with the Giants organization, he has never played outside the infield, and has exclusively stuck to the middle infield spots.

The report made it clear that he has worked primarily in left field this offseason to prepare for spring training. However he has continued to work at second base, shortstop, and third base to increase versatility.

The reason for this transition is likely due to his struggles at the Major League level with those positions, as in 2024 he played 60.0 innings at the shortstop position and was charged with five errors, worthy of a .865 fielding rate.

This made it difficult to find any future projection at the position with the signing of Willy Adames this offseason and a few strong shortstop prospects in the pipeline.

His path to the MLB has been a somewhat slow and steady one for Luciano, as he has worked through each level for San Francisco all the way from the Arizona Complex League to the Majors over the course of five seasons.

The difficulty of missing the 2020 season, what would have been his second season in the minor leagues, certainly made it difficult on Luciano as he only got one season prior to that canceled season.

With that said, he was able to be productive at each level relatively quickly once he got settled into his role and made his MLB debut in 2023.

At the MLB level, he has not found his stride at the plate, slashing .217/.286/.590 in 115 at-bats with 14 runs, three RBI, and 11 walks to 45 strikeouts. He did a good job at making high-velo contact when he got the bat on the ball, but he struggled immensely to make contact consistently.

His 45 strikeouts in 115 at-bats is a rate that must be improved. When the walks are not keeping up, it can really be a detriment to success.

With the change in position and some confidence in doing so, it may help Luciano make some positive contributions and possibly stick on the roster if he does well enough.