What becoming SF Giants’ full-time DH means for Marco Luciano’s development

SAN FRANCISCO — Marco Luciano took a seat on the bench on the top step of the third-base dugout Wednesday afternoon and waited. As pitchers played catch on the outfield grass, the Giants’ top prospect was their only position player to make his way out of the clubhouse.

Once the ball bags and protective screens and fungo bats were properly placed on the field, Matt Williams approached the young shortstop and leaned over the dugout rail. “You ready? We’re ready,” he said. “Let’s go.” Luciano fielded soft hoppers from Williams in foul territory, starting from his knees and working his way into an athletic stance, moving further apart, until it was time to move their drills to the infield dirt.

Luciano was early because, in the new circumstances in which he has found himself, the limited time for pregame preparation is precious. It is part of a delicate balance the Giants must strike in the wake of their trade deadline decision to open at-bats at designated hitter without abandoning his development defensively.

“He’s going to do a lot of DHing,” manager Bob Melvin said after taking a moment to observe Luciano and the pitchers’ fielding practice taking place concurrently.

Luciano will “mix in” at second base and shortstop, the skipper said, but the bulk of his reps will come away from live game action. With Thairo Estrada “still a little bit away,” Melvin said Casey Schmitt and Brett Wisely would split time at second with Tyler Fitzgerald at short.

“Whatever they want me to do, I’m going to be ready and take advantage of this opportunity,” Luciano said through team interpreter Erwin Higueros. “Whether I’m playing here or in the minors, the plan is to continue learning. That’s the mental process that I have, just be positive about what they want me to do.”

After committing five errors when he was handed the reins to the shortstop position in May, Luciano began splitting time between the two middle infield spots with Triple-A Sacramento when he returned from a hamstring strain. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald and Wisely established themselves as contributors at the major-league level.

But Luciano had recently been such a force at the plate in Triple-A that the Giants were comfortable trading Jorge Soler when the Braves agreed to take on the remainder of his three-year, $42 million contract he signed at the start of spring training. Since the calendar turned to July, Luciano was batting .270 with six home runs and a .927 OPS. Of his 112 plate appearances, just as many ended in bases on balls (18) as strikeouts, good for a .413 on-base percentage.

“I’m just doing my own thing,” Luciano said. “You know, you miss, you miss and you’ve got to just keep on grinding, putting in the work, until everything starts clicking.”

Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, said Luciano has “really come a long way offensively.”

“I think we have seen his trajectory over the last few years and you talk about how he can be put under such a microscope because he’s been such a highly thought of prospect from the time he signed at 16,” Zaidi said. “Sometimes you lose the zoom out big picture of how much progress he’s made. We’ve really seen that over the last month.”

Since he signed out of the Dominican Republic for a $2.6 million bonus, Luciano has been one of the most highly regarded hitting prospects in the sport but faced constant questions about whether he would be able to stick at shortstop as he grew into his muscular 6-foot-1 frame.

The Giants determined that his bat was ready for the big leagues, and they aren’t ready to give up on him as a shortstop just yet.

“This is really about getting him at-bats in the DH spot,” Zaidi said. “I don’t think we’re putting in ink that he’s a career DH now. Obviously he’s young and we’ve talked about his defensive progress. There may be spots where he moves around the infield, but this is the role for him right now.”

Matzek arrives

The Giants won’t have IF/OF Mark Canha with them until they begin their series in Cincinnati on Friday, but one of their trade deadline acquisitions was settling into his new digs in the home clubhouse Wednesday afternoon, and it may not be long before LHP Tyler Matzek is ready to contribute in the bullpen.

Matzek, 33, missed all of 2023 after elbow surgery and hasn’t pitched May 4 due to complications that he attributed to returning to the mound too quickly this spring. But he said he was “right at the end” of his rehab  entered the final stages of his rehab and “a couple bullpens away” from starting a rehab assignment.

The Southern California native owns a 3.72 ERA over 168 career appearances but allowed 11 runs on 16 hits in the 10 innings he pitched this season before landing on the 60-day injured list. Acquired in the deal that sent Luke Jackson and Jorge Soler to Atlanta, Matzek took over the real estate that formerly belonged to Jackson, who coined the PG-13 nickname “Tyler Nutsack” — for his work in high-leverage situations — when they were teammates in Atlanta.

“I hope I can keep (the locker) cleaner than him,” Matzek said. “I’m sure you guys have seen how dirty that guy is. Or, messy. I wouldn’t say dirty. How messy that guy is. He’s got a cluttered brain and cluttered locker.”