The SF Giants may have already given up on their top prospect

The SF Giants have not handled their top prospect Marco Luciano very well this season. His struggles this season, especially on defense, leave one feeling that the organization may have already given up on him due to his lack of playing time.

It is worth running through Luciano's whirlwind year. Going back to last season, the Giants called him up late in the year and gave him some opportunities at shortstop. He looked decent at the plate and was not bad at shortstop either, recording only 1 error in 14 games.

With Brandon Crawford leaving the team, the Giants committed to Luciano being the starting shortstop for 2024. An injury in Spring Training coinciding with a hot spring from veteran Nick Ahmed meant Luciano would start the year in Triple-A.

Marco Luciano's rough year could shake confidence

He got called up to the majors a few months into the season and looked terrible at shortstop. He made error after error before he was sent down again.

After the Giants traded Jorge Soler, they said that Luciano would get more at-bats as the designated hitter. They sort of tried that for two weeks before he was sent down again.

Then they called him up in September when it was clear that their playoff hopes were gone. This time, the strategy was to give him an opportunity at second base. The errors have not been as bad at second, but he has certainly not looked comfortable there either.

Plus, he has just not been hitting very well at the big league level either. He has a slash line of .219/.269/.315 with 26 strikeouts in 73 at-bats this season.

What is most damning is that his playing time has been close to nonexistent as of late. He did not play at all in this week's series against the Baltimore Orioles. Perhaps now, with the Giants officially eliminated from playoff contention, manager Bob Melvin will be more comfortable putting him out there.

Even if he does play a lot in this final week of the season, one cannot help but wonder what the organization thinks about him and what this year has done to his confidence. From the defensive struggles to the mixed messages to the constantly getting called up and sent down, this is the kind of season that can potentially ruin a young player.

He is still very young, having just turned 23 years old. We saw from Heliot Ramos this year that sometimes it takes a few years of struggling at the big league level before you can truly blossom. But Luciano may never get that opportunity to blossom with the Giants if they feel like he is already a lost cause.

A lot of this is probably going to depend on the front office and specifically who is making decisions in the front office. Signing Luciano as an international free agent was one of the first big moves the Zaidi regime made to try to revamp the farm system. However, a new regime may not be as invested in seeing him succeed especially if they determine that he is not capable of being a reliable big leaguer.

It's unfortunate that Luciano has had such a rough year. One can hope this will just make him more determined to prove everyone wrong by coming out next season and proving he belongs in the big leagues.