Soler’s surprise signing by the Giants should finally open the door for Luciano Originally appeared in NBC Bay Area Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants drafted Wilmer Flores and Thairo Estrada to help close the Jorge Soler deal in February. A few days into camp, they held a small news conference on a patio at Scottsdale Stadium to introduce a player they said could hit cleanup for them for the next three seasons.
But it wasn’t long before team officials began to get an ominous feeling. They didn’t feel that Soler, who had hit 36 homers in Miami last year, was very comfortable hitting in the chilly Oracle Park, and the power numbers matched those suspicions. As the first half progressed, another thought began to dawn on them.
Bob Melvin needed the designated hitter spot for several of his veterans, and at times the Giants even wanted to give Heliot Ramos a break by letting him focus solely on hitting, but they had committed the spot to just one player, and not just for this season.
Late Monday night, the Giants made a trade to try to clear things up a bit. Soler got hot Over the past week, and when the Atlanta Braves called seeking a meeting, the front office saw an opportunity to make a surprising salary-cutting move.
The Giants He sent Soler and Luke Jackson back to Atlanta, where both were World Series champions in 2021. In return, they received injured left-handed reliever Tyler Matzek and young infielder Sabin Ceballos, who is more of a mid-level prospect.
The agreement’s main objective is to settle Soler’s salary, but not just for this season.
The Giants will save about $4 million this year, but Soler was owed $26 million over the next two seasons, which the Braves are paying in full. They are now also responsible for Jackson’s contract, which has a team option that will not be exercised but also a $2 million buyout.
The move was the first significant one before Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline, and it’s a sign that the Giants may not be quite sure which direction to take. Getting rid of that high salary and their leadoff hitter would seem to signal a sale, but the Giants don’t see it that way.
They’ve talked to teams about their starting pitchers, including Blake SnellBut as of Monday night, they had not made any progress. They do not expect to deal Snell before Tuesday’s 3 p.m. deadline, though they continue to get calls about him and veteran right-hander Alex Cobb.
If a deal is reached on Tuesday, a rotation spot would open up for Rookie Hayden Birdsongthat would add to the youth movement. The Giants are also hoping to find a true center fielder, which would allow them to move Ramos back to a corner.
They are ready to rely more on youngsters, and Soler’s move is part of that. The Giants have been looking for a way to free up at-bats for 22-year-old Marco Luciano, who has six homers and a solid strikeout-to-walk ratio in Triple-A this month. Their plan is to call up Luciano and let him try to stick around this time.
Luciano’s previous time in the big leagues was as a shortstop, but the Giants are finally willing to admit that he doesn’t fit defensively at that position, which now belongs to Tyler Fitzgerald, anyway. Luciano has been playing second base in the minors, but the staff isn’t fully comfortable with the transition yet. It seems likely that he’ll get the majority of second-half at-bats as a designated hitter if he can get off to a good start, with other players coming in when they need defensive breaks.
Soler made 91 starts as the designated hitter for the Giants, posting a .749 OPS and just 12 homers. When Soler was introduced in February, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi mentioned something that turned out to be prophetic.
“When we did a Zoom call with Jorge a couple weeks ago, Bob said something about hitting cleanup,” Zaidi said at the time. “And Jorge said, ‘I like hitting leadoff, too.'”
Soler did a nice job in that role at times, but that’s not why the Giants initially gave him a three-year deal. They have plenty of others — Fitzgerald, LaMonte Wade Jr., Mike Yastrzemski — who can sneak into the top of the lineup, but they were hoping Soler could eventually give them a 30-homer presence. Now they’ll see if Luciano is ready to provide that kind of thunder in the near future.
Monday’s trade will save the Giants more than $30 million in total, but it comes with some risks. First, it bolstered the roster of a team they’re chasing in the wild-card race, where they have very little room for error.
They’re also putting a lot of weight on Luciano’s shoulders, and if more veterans are traded, they’ll be relying heavily on rookies in their quest for a MLB playoff spot. Given the way this season has gone, though, that’s a plan that probably doesn’t scare Zaidi and the rest of the front office all that much right now.
