Marco

Luciano

Neither player was a serious candidate to crack the Yankees’ Opening Day roster, but Luciano definitely didn’t help his cause during Grapefruit League play. He hit just .040 (1-for-25) with 10 strikeouts. Yikes. He’ll look to get back on track at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to start the 2026 campaign.

Luciano was designated for assignment at the end of January, and finally, no one claimed him. The former top prospect will need to be added to the 40-man roster if the Yankees deem him worthy of an MLB spot at any point.

Luciano was on the Yankees for four days. Since the end of the season, Luciano has been on the Giants, Pirates, Orioles, and Yankees. It remains to be seen where the former top prospect ends up, but he’s just 24 years old, so there may still be a chance for him to establish himself as an MLB regular.

Luciano claims the last spot on the Yankees’ 40-man for now, but the team will need to add Cody Bellinger in the coming days and Luciano might go right back on waivers at that point. If so, it’d be his fourth time there this offseason. A former middle infielder, Luciano only played left field in the Giants system last season and is out of options, so he wouldn’t seem to make much sense for the Yankees roster unless the team wants to send down Jasson Domínguez to play regularly.

Luciano lasted eight days on the Orioles’ 40-man, which is longer than most of their waiver pickups this winter. Maybe they’ll get lucky and sneak him through waivers, as they just did with Jhonkensy Noel.

The Pirates just claimed Luciano off waivers from the Giants on December 19th and then designated him for assignment two weeks later. Luciano is just 24 years old and was a top 50 prospect in baseball less than two weeks ago. This is a nice flyer for Baltimore, even though they have nowhere to play the prospects they already have.

Luciano’s time in the Pittsburgh organization is very likely to be short, as the 24-year-old was just claimed off waivers at the beginning of December. The former top prospect could sneak through unclaimed this time, but it seems likely someone will take that chance.

Luciano is not long removed from being considered one of the top hitting prospects in baseball, but the 24-year-old has seen his stock drop considerably due to poor play in both the minors and brief stints in the majors. He’ll get a chance to shine in a new organization, but this is definitely a wait-and-see type of profile from a fantasy perspective.

It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman and Willy Adames aren’t much for routine days off. The Giants are certainly committed to those three and probably Jung Hoo Lee, Heliot Ramos and Patrick Bailey as 2026 regulars, leaving openings at second, in right field and at DH. But the first two of those spots are currently occupied by younger players anyway in Casey Schmitt and Drew Gilbert. We wouldn’t expect much to change with the core group going forward. Marco Luciano, Luis Matos and maybe Wade Meckler could get looks between the outfield and the DH spot.

Yeah, with the River Cats racking up 17 runs last night, that’s seven plate appearances in a nine-inning game. Luciano, strictly a left fielder now, was just 5-for-41 on the season going into the contest. A shockingly early cut from the spring roster last month — he was sent down on March 5 — Luciano is going to need to excel to get another chance with the Giants. He seems like a candidate to be thrown into a trade this summer.