3 ex-SF Giants prospects once seen as the future are stuck in minor league purgatory

Roll back the clock to 2024 for a second. The SF Giants’ big hope for the future came in the form of, at the time, shortstop Marco Luciano and outfielder Luis Matos. Many wanted them to make the team out of spring training but they began the year in the minors.

Not many thought Tyler Fitzgerald would turn into an everyday player even though he was seen as a player with promise, but he came out of nowhere and started hitting home runs which led to him playing a lot at shortstop that season.

Eventually Matos got called up and it looked like he was legit. He earned National League Player of the Week honors and was swinging a hot bat but eventually cooled down and got sent back to Triple-A.

Luciano got called up but was so bad defensively at shortstop that the Giants had to completely reevaluate how to use him and eventually moved him to the outfield.

Those three players were seen as the future at various points in 2024, but now they are all with different organizations and are stuck in minor league purgatory.

Promising former SF Giants prospects are now stuck in the minors

Let’s start with Luciano. He bounced around from team to team in the offseason as he kept getting claimed by teams and then getting waived. He finally settled with the New York Yankees where he’s having a great year offensively in the minors.

He’s hitting .291/.384/.533 with 24 home runs and 70 runs batted in between Double-A and Triple-A. His numbers have dropped a bit since being promoted to Triple-A and the odds of him getting promoted when the Yankees already have the likes of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup are pretty low.

As for Matos, he’s been with the Milwaukee Brewers this year after the Giants let him go and he played a little bit for their big league club and showed some positive signs but has mostly been in the minors where he is hitting an unimpressive .234/.307/.355 with five home runs and 36 driven in with the Triple-A club.

It’s tough to see him getting promoted this year especially since the Brewers are one of the best teams in baseball right now.

Then there’s Fitzgerald who was initially claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays but now he has wound up with the Los Angeles Dodgers where, predictably, he was having a very solid minor league season until he got hurt.

Fitzgerald was hitting .293/.400/.598 with six homers and 22 runs batted in for LA’s Triple-A affiliate before getting hurt. He hasn’t played since June.

Basically, all three of these guys, who looked like they could be with the Giants for a long time back in 2024, are now stuck in the minors with other teams. That may make the Giants feel a bit more vindicated for moving on from them but there’s always the chance they might go on a tear and get a little revenge on San Francisco at some point.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow