Giants opt for Luciano to return to Triple-A, promote prospect McCray Originally appeared in NBC Bay Area Sports
Marco Luciano’s yo-yo ride Hopes for a 2024 MLB season continued Wednesday when the Giants optioned him back to Triple-A Sacramento.
Field prospect Grant McCray He was promoted from Triple-A. The 23-year-old will make his MLB debut against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday night at Oracle Park. He will play center field and bat ninth against right-hander Grant Holmes.
Luciano was called up after the Giants traded designated hitter Jorge Soler to the Atlanta Braves before the July 30 MLB trade deadline. The 22-year-old infielder has appeared in seven games (six starts) since returning to San Francisco but was 4-for-21 during that span.
Luciano’s defensive struggles at shortstop, combined with the emergence of Tyler Fitzgerald, have limited the top infield prospect to starting at DH in all six games since July 30.
Overall this season, Luciano is hitting .289/.333/.400 with three doubles, one triple, one RBI and 14 strikeouts in 17 MLB games.
Luciano was expected to be the Giants’ starting shortstop on Opening Day in 2024, but he lost the spring training contest to veteran Nick Ahmed. San Francisco eventually called up the Dominican Republic native on May 14, but he landed on the injured list with a hamstring injury in late May.
Once healthy in mid-June, Luciano was activated and optioned to Triple-A, where he stayed until he was called up again after the Soler trade.
McCray, the Giants’ 2019 third-round draft pick out of Lakewood Ranch High School in Bradenton, Florida, had a breakout minor league season in 2022 in which he hit .289/.383/.514 with 23 doubles, 23 home runs, 79 RBIs and 43 stolen bases in 120 games between Low-A San Jose and High-A Eugene.
This season, McCray is hitting .242/.330/.446 with 26 doubles, 12 homers and 52 RBIs in 97 games between Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento.
THIS GUY.
McCRAY BOMB.
We’re here to support Grant McCray in the opposite field. Sac leads 10-5 with his sixth homer of the year in Triple-A. image.twitter.com/Upc3pQadfr
— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) August 12, 2024
McCray is currently the The Giants’ No. 11 prospect, according to MLB Pipelinebut he peaked at No. 3 to finish the 2023 season, behind only left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison (No. 1) and Luciano (No. 2).
McCray and Fitzgerald were third- and fourth-round picks of the Giants, respectively, in 2019. They will now be teammates in San Francisco.
“It’s great,” McCray told reporters in San Francisco before Wednesday’s game. “We had the COVID year right after we got drafted, so that hurt both of us, just getting started. But we’ve both worked really hard to get here and I’m really excited to be one of the second guys to make it to the big leagues from our draft class.”
Now, for the moment, Luciano and McCray have swapped positions, and the Giants are hoping the latter can give them a boost during a crucial stretch of games.
