Marco Luciano hasn't played in a minor league game since Aug. 21, 2019, yet his profile continues to rise among the best prospects in all of baseball. His offseason of praise continued Thursday morning when ESPN released its Top 100 prospects list.
Kiley McDaniel ranks the Giants' top prospect as the seventh-best prospect in baseball. That's the highest Luciano is ranked by any of the major outlets. Baseball America ranks Luciano No. 12 overall, MLB Pipeline has him at No. 16 and The Athletic's Keith Law has him the lowest at No. 31.
Luciano, who is just 19 years old, impresses McDaniel so much that he even compares him to Wander Franco, baseball's consensus top prospect right now.
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"He arguably has the best combination of bat speed, raw power, in-game power and general feel to hit of almost any prospect in recent memory, maybe even including Wander Franco," McDaniel wrote.
He also says that you can "take Luciano's building blocks and imagine a Hall of Famer pretty easily." There's of course risk here too, as there is with almost any young prospect like Luciano. But at such a young age, prospects with this kind of bat speed, raw power and feel for the plate don't come around often. Not at all.
One more notable thing to take from McDaniel's evaluation of Luciano is that he lists the shortstop as a third baseman. He believes, as does many others, Luciano will have to move to the hot corner as he continues to grow. But the Giants believe he'll have a long future at shortstop.
Whether he has to change positions or not, his bat should give the Giants a young star they haven't had in ages.
San Francisco Giants
Luciano isn't the only Giants prospect to make McDaniel's list. Along with outfielder Heliot Ramos (No. 62), catchers Joey Bart and Patrick Bailey also joined the group. Bart comes in at No. 32 and Bailey ends the rankings at No. 100. This is the first time Bailey has made a Top 100 list from a major outlet.
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Bart is facing a big year after being rushed to majors last season and struggling in San Francisco. He'll start the year out in Triple-A Sacramento and could again join the big league team in the near future. Bart and Bailey both learned first base at the Giants' alternate site in Sacramento, and Bailey received rave reviews for all aspects of his game.
Bailey was polished coming out of North Carolina State and could quickly go through the Giants' farm system.
Everything starts with Luciano, though, and his potential seems to be hovering in the San Francisco sky right now.