SAN FRANCISCO -- For the second time in a month, Marco Luciano is in the big leagues with the promise of a long runway to show what he can do. This time, he figures to actually get his shot.
Tuesday afternoon's call-up from Triple-A was the third of the year and second since the All-Star break for Luciano, although the last one proved to be much shorter than he expected and the Giants said it would be. After dumping Jorge Soler's salary on the Atlanta Braves, they talked of letting Luciano be the everyday DH, but it wasn't long before Jerar Encarnacion, Michael Conforto and others were soaking up those at-bats.
This time, Luciano is up as a second baseman, and there's a lot less competition there. Brett Wisely still will occasionally play, but he's the only other option on the roster right now. Manager Bob Melvin said Luciano will play quite a bit, which likely won't be the case for Luis Matos, who also was recalled.
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"Luci is an easier fit. It's going to be a lot of second base," Melvin said. "Brett is going to get some too, but Marco is going to get a lot of reps there. It's kind of the first time that it looks like we have a lot of at-bats for him."
Luciano went right into the lineup on Tuesday and was 1-for-4 in an 8-7 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Defensively, the first night back was not one to remember. He bobbled a ball up the middle that was ruled a base hit and later committed an error when he couldn't get a scoop off on a slow roller to the right side.
"It's going to be a little bit of a learning process with the position," Melvin said after the game. "He had a play that he had to go to his backhand and try to make a quick play, and then it's just a different look for the chopper that he had to go in on and try to scoop to first base. He's still learning the position.
The Giants have all but officially given up on their hopes that Luciano can be a big-league shortstop, but they're going to see if he can stick at second base. That would allow them a bit more flexibility as they enter the offseason. Shortstop currently is spoken for by Tyler Fitzgerald, although it's possible the Giants will make an offseason addition that requires moving Fitzgerald to another spot. Either way, it would be a positive to have Luciano finally find his comfort zone.
San Francisco Giants
On his first afternoon back, Luciano went through a lengthy pregame workout with infield guru Ron Wotus. He said his focus this month is on taking plenty of grounders and getting better.
"I'll show up every day, take grounders, play hard," he said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. "You might make errors and the next day you try to improve on them."
The Giants say they now will give Luciano a chance to work through those mistakes. The outlook isn't quite as clear for Matos, who was the NL Player of the Week earlier this season but hit .185 over his next 32 big-league games.
Matos was not in the original lineup Tuesday, and when Conforto felt oblique tightness, it was Encarnacion who took his spot. Melvin, noting that he has six outfielders, said finding at-bats for Matos is going to be "a little more difficult." The Giants will go with a rotation for now. Even though they are 7 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot, they still want to play their veterans, and many of them play the same position as Matos, who struck out twice after entering in the middle of Tuesday's game.
"It does not look great where we are, but there's no asterisk next to us," in the standings, Melvin said.
Asked if the plan might change in a couple of weeks if the Giants don't make up ground, Melvin said he's not sure yet. The Giants had three rookies in the lineup Tuesday along with young building blocks Heliot Ramos and Patrick Bailey, but they're not ready yet to raise that white flag all the way up and put all of their young players in the lineup on a daily basis. For now, Luciano will be the one to get a look -- assuming the organization sticks to the public proclamations this time.