Former SF Giants top prospect has been DFA'd for the third time this offseason

Everyone knew coming into this offseason that Marco Luciano's time with the SF Giants was likely over, but the former top prospect has now been designated for assignment by three teams this offseason.

The Giants were the first team to DFA him and the Pittsburgh Pirates scooped him up which seemed fitting since they also picked up Joey Bart after he flamed out in San Francisco. That proved to be short-lived though as the Pirates DFA'd him as well.

Then the Baltimore Orioles decided to claim him. Only natural that they should be the ones to get Luciano turned around after the Giants nabbed Mike Yastrzemski from them all those years ago and he became one of the most reliable right fielders in baseball. And yet, the Orioles have now moved on from Luciano as well.

Former SF Giants prospect Marco Luciano has been DFA'd three times this offseason

This is not an uncommon occurrence this time of year. The Giants claimed both Joey Wiemer and Justin Dean off waivers earlier in the offseason only to put both players on waivers themselves when they needed their roster spots to make room for other players.

This sort of roster churn is not unusual, but it must be a bit of a whirlwind for Luciano who has been with the same organization for his professional career but now it seems teams are playing hot potato with him.

Luciano will surely settle with some team before the season starts and will likely receive an invitation to spring training. The 24-year-old is obviously far removed from being a highly touted shortstop who was seen as the heir to Brandon Crawford, but a team will still take a chance on him.

Last season in Triple-A with the River Cats Luciano slashed .214/.335/.413 with 23 home runs and 66 runs batted in. He never earned a call-up to the big leagues last season, but he flashed enough power in the minors to get another team to give him a shot.

He has faced adversity in recent seasons as he has had to change positions and struggled in limited opportunities at the big league level with the Giants.

Yet, he is young and he has power so maybe he will find some situation on a team where a hitting coach is able to help him figure things out and he will become a productive big league player. He just may get picked up and unceremoniously DFA'd a few more times before that happens.