Marco Luciano hit .269/.350/.467 over 257 combined plate appearances in rookie ball and high-A ball in 2022, a solid performance that was marred by over two months lost to the injured list due to a lower back strain. To combat the back issues that have hampered him more than once during his career, Luciano told The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser that he has gained 30 pounds since last season, as he believes “having more muscle will help make my body stronger so I can last the entire season.”
Luciano is one of the Giants’ top prospects and one of the better-regarded prospects in the sport, as Baseball Prospectus, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and MLB Pipeline all had the shortstop ranked between 18th and 22nd on their preseason top-100 lists. Evaluators are clearly still high on the 21-year-old despite his injury concerns, though it isn’t yet clear if Luciano has recovered enough to participate in any game action before Spring Training is over. Slusser writes that Luciano’s fielding work has been limited, and he only started hitting on the field a few days ago. With Luciano expected to start the year at Double-A, it would seem like he might first need some extra work in extended Spring Training before making his on-field debut in 2023.
More from San Francisco’s camp….
- Left knee inflammation twice sent LaMonte Wade Jr. to the injured list last season, contributing to a tough year that saw Wade hit only .207/.305/.359 over 251 PA over 77 games. Discussing his injury with Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, Wade said his knee problems first started late in the 2021 season, and following the 2022 campaign, some doctors even suggested that surgery was necessary. Wade opted for rehabilitation over surgery, and “I’m healthy now and I feel way better than I ever have.” That’s terrific news for both Wade and the Giants, as the 29-year-old is being counted on for the majority of playing time at first base in 2023.
- Joc Pederson is getting some work at first base this spring, playing six innings in Friday’s Cactus League game. While Pederson will mostly be a DH this season and be used in the outfield when he does get into the regular lineup, the Giants were also considering Pederson as a left-handed hitting first base option if Wade isn’t available. Pederson has “worked really hard at first. He has a really good understanding of his mechanics right now,” manager Gabe Kapler told MLB.com’s Maria Guardado and other reporters. Pederson previously played 149 innings as a first baseman with the Dodgers in 2019, but with dismal results, as per the public defensive metrics.
Alec Bohm: I gained 15 pounds of muscle since last season!
Marco Luciano: That’s cute kid.
30 lbs of muscle in a few months isn’t natural. If he’s accurate about his gains, there’s supplementation going on.
Well, I’d be willing to bet not ALL of that weight is muscle, but nevertheless that’s a staggering number.
Yeah, it’s like me and my wife….she says, “man, you’ve gained a lot of weight, honey!” I say, “30 pounds, but it’s all muscle!”
Probably using the same scale, ya know…?
I’d say 20 of that is “man weight” at age 21.
Is he saying it’s all muscle? The quote says he gained 30 lbs of weight and hopes having more muscle will help make his body stronger.
It’s was a response to the blend of the article and Dark’s joke. Article said 30 pounds, Dark’s joke was about gaining twice as much muscle as the 15 pounds of muscle Bohm put on…. Also, I’m not sure if the article originally said all muscle, but it may have as well.
Either way, just a general observation, not accusing Luciano of anything…… unless he gained 30 pounds of muscle, of course.
he’s 21 and weighed 180..
I really don’t see a big wow with putting on 30 pounds,
these nutritionists today can draw up plans to add or lose substantial amounts of weight in a limited time period.
just adding to the convo.
It’s not a lot, it’s the time frame. Muscle doesn’t grow that fast (if it’s all muscle). It’s not biologically possible without enhancements. It’s actually harder for someone slender to pack on muscle-based weight as well, because it’s lean muscle.
well we know it’s not because we can use context clues to figure out that his total weight gained was 30 lbs , so surely not 30 lb of muscle 😉
He is on the Kapler diet.
Except for when it’s me, obviously. Then it’s all natural muscle…
Dads a high school football defensive coordinator. Had a kid put on 50 pounds of muscle and grow 4 inches from when he started after school weight training club for players in January til the first game in august….never seen a growth spurt like that, kid looked like he went from ASU Bonds to ‘03 Bonds just like that
But in general I gotta agree with Clipper, it’s highly unlikely to put on 30 pounds of MUSCLE in 5 months without supplements, or a legendary growth spurt
You realize kids in high school can get ped and steroids, right?
What? No. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
IMPOSSIBLE
Indeed. The more worrisome part is someone at the professional level thinking that adding a bunch of weight will help them prevent injuries. Is Pablo Sandoval his trainer?
That statement is too broad to cover all potential body types and genetic builds on this planet. It’s unlikely the entire 30 pounds is muscle and in my experience it isn’t too difficult to put on 10 pounds of muscle in a relatively short period. I don’t know how far you can go with a professional trainer and strict diet discipline but I imagine it’s at least double that.
Pretty sure he hasn’t added belly fat to help his bad back.
Ten pounds of muscle in a year even from a guy juicing is insane. Sports journalists outside of the lifting community just don’t understand that. Every year we hear about a guy put on five to ten pounds of muscle in an offseason which is laughably ridiculous. 30 pounds of muscle is literally two decades of work specializing in only lifting for most people.
What I’m trying to say is they just told him to put on weight and he got fat. If he spent a year doing it (still a very aggressive calorie surplus to hit thirty pounds) at least 24 plus pounds of it is fat/water/glycogen.
In the most ideal muscle building scenario he would have ONLY lifted on a very rigid program and diet without playing baseball at all for a year and even then at his age and training level (no professional athlete in the four major sports has the time to focus on lifting at the expense of their main sport) he could possibly have put on ten if he added thirty but it would still be pretty astounding even for an untrained individual who didn’t participate in other sports besides bodybuilding.
A 21yo talking about his gains in the weight room. Very unlikely that Marco’s 30 pounds is the equivalent of the imperial version.
When i was 24 I went from 145lbs to 185lbs mostly muscle (30in waist)
in four months working 4 days a week in a warehouse. for some athletic people its easy to gain muscle.. when your body hasn’t finished maturing.
I’m not saying you’re are wrong, because you seem to know what you’re talking about, however, when I played college basketball in the 90s, I went from 140 lbs. to 153 in a summer & was using creatine. Now, I was 19 & since we had a strength & conditioning coach it was the first time I really had to work out with weights. Could part of this been that I was just 19 & maybe hit a small growth spurt?
One year packs on muscle, next year says put on too much muscle needs to lean out. These guys just guess. Nobody has the perfect answer to keep everyone healthy. It’s my opinion these guys don’t get enough rest. More soft tissue injuries than ever. Nobody strained oblique muscles in the 1980s.
Not that difficult at his age if you can hit the gym daily with a dedicated professional trainer and nutritionist. It would be tough for me at 41 with a full time job, but this is his full time job, also if he was injured previously he likely wasn’t working out as much and might have lost some muscle to begin with, so a lot of that is not new muscle entirely but rebuilding what his body had previously accomplished. Very possible in my opinion with out the use of anything on the banned substances list.
Literally impossible. Bodybuilders on huge PED regimens put on 50 pounds of muscle in an entire training lifetime.
The starting point has a lot to do with it. If you start out at 180 and your 21 going to 210 is not that incredible. Especially if you have the kind of resources available to modern baseball prospects. I’m sure the organization was involved in his exercise and nutrition regime.
It’s certainly possible there were guys that did a lot more than that but they were using banned substances since we had no testing during our deployment. When we got back I slimmed down as I began running again and normal life took over. Those who were using and now subject to testing quickly got obese and had to go on weight controls in order to meet uniform standards. It was pretty easy to tell with in a couple of months who was and wasn’t using. That was 2006 so I’m sure with modern sports science he could accomplish 30 lbs at his age.
I like Lamont but he is like a Travis ishikawa. Great to have as a spare utility guy if you have room on the roster. But if you get to where you are contending seriously he’s becomes very expendable. I see his future on a A’s Pirates ect rebuild roster. Which is more than I have accomplished so that’s not really a slight towards him, just saying he isn’t a starting 1B on a perineal contender.
I think the last Giant to gain 30lbs in one offseason was Bonds…. and we all know how he did it.
Hmmm. What’s his hat size compared to last season…
It’s literally not even medically possible to do that even with steroids. Do you even lift, bro?
I put a little more than 40 lbs on in Iraq over 9 months at 25, that was with out a professional trainer and nutrition specialist, and standing 12 hours of post each day 7 days a week sweating in the Iraqi heat. It’s very possible in his situation.
40 pounds of muscle in 9 months in any country no matter the reasons is not physically possible even if you were juiced up like a Russian MMA fighter.
I dunno, I’m betting Pablo put on 30lbs in an offseason as well.
The results of Pederson’s work at first were dismal per anyone with eyeballs.
Maybe the second go around will be better this time. But -6 defensive runs saved in less than 200 innings is impressively bad.
Well I suppose it couldn’t possibly be worse this time around. I was just kind of amused by the need to refer to defensive metrics to understand how bad he was at the position. The eye test was more than enough to know he played it like a fence post with a glove.
@blue – As a Dodgers fan, how would you say he he in center in his early years?
Without having paid much attention to him over the years, even with some decline in age and/or injuries, I was shocked at how impressively bad a former centerfielder could be at fielding.
Not exceptional, but not bad. He covered the ground, at least for awhile. At 1B he was lost but then the Dodgers were asking an awful lot of him learning a new position under fire.
Drug test twice a year. Probably was on the same test schedule as Albert.
And Papi.
Joc is terrible at 1B. He’s even worse at 1B than he is in LF. With Wade, Flores, and Davis the Giants should be more than covered at the position
I think it’s just LH emergency cover for Wade. I listened to an interview with him and when Kapler approached him about it, he admitted he is not comfortable there and would need to work to be comfortable. He was pretty honest about his previous effort there.
Correction: Joc was terrible at 1B. He had zero experience at 1B when the Dodgers tried him out there. The Giants planned this ahead of time, and have had him working on getting better. He’s been working with coaches to improve things like his footwork. Whether he will still continue to be terrible is anyone’s guess. But at least see if the work pays off first before deciding he’s terrible.
As for Wade and Flores, the Giants love positional flexibility. When the inevitable injuries occur, I’d rather see Wade in the OF than Joc.
I love these comment sections. Way better than that actual article. We got Uggla the ‘roid and body building expert we got Moon man who knows how to build a MLB team like the back of his hand we got Yankee clipper whose got nothing better to do. This makes sitting on the toilet so much fun.
First base is not that hard Joc. Tell him Wash.
It’s incredibly hard.
Adding 30 pds if you’re a middle infielder is probably not smart
A popular opinion is the future for him isn’t middle infield. Apparently there’s an opinion amongst Giant folk that they could stick him in LF and get him up faster.
Is Profar in the Giants plans? He played All OF positions and some 1st base for the Padres.Has had the throwing YIPS from 2B in the Past. Could be a good pickup.
Profar just isn’t very good. That’s part of the reason why he’s still unsigned. Part of the reason is he and/or his agent vastly overestimated his value. He never should have opted out.
Fangraphs had a good article on why he remains unsigned. They felt a lot of his value was in his foot speed, which has taken a nose-dive over the last 2 seasons. His drop in foot speed, since he isn’t an every day player, limits his value as a bench piece. That coupled with his lack of defensive value, and his just league average hitting, doesn’t offer much to teams.
Old timer 78 – No.
I think the giants have done fine mostly this offseason but Lamonte Wade at 1B is pathetic. You’re lucky if you get league average offense at 1B
Wade Jr should be fine at first, provided he’s past his injuries. If not, there are contingencies in JD Davis and Flores, and now Joc, apparently (although I’ll believe that when I see it). Not to mention, 1b is pretty easy to replace. I’m sure they could pry, say, Santander, from the Orioles if they are in contention and need an upgrade at 1b.
Fraham -Re Wade, I think you’re going to eat your words.
Paying Joc 20 million is funny
I was surprised when he received a QO, but after seeing what Nimmo and Senga signed for I think it was a pretty prudent decision by the Giants.
Seems like when most teams have a can’t miss prospect like Luciano, they are in the majors and contributing at a young age. When was the last time the Giants had someone balling out at 21? I’m guessing it was Bumgarner over a decade ago. Something needs to change in their developmental philosophy.
oh no! A 22yo is balling out on X team, put a fork in him, he’s too old now…
Giants farm system hasn’t produced much talent in recent years. Arizona has done a much better job of building from within on a smaller budget and it make SF holes even more glaring.
Moon Man, A smaller budget isn’t very relevant to building through the draft. It has a little more relevance when it comes to international FAs, but even then, teams are limited by the pool money.
The Giants, in not ever rebuilding but always trying to be competitive, don’t get very many high draft choices. The average draft position for the D’backs in the last 10 years is 14.3. The Giants average position was 20.6.
In the last 10 years, the D’backs have had 3 top 10 picks, including a #1 overall. The Giants have had one top ten pick, and have never had a #1 overall pick, dating back to when the draft was instituted in 1965.
“Luciano is one of the Giants’ top prospects and one of the better-regarded prospects in the sport, as Baseball Prospectus”
Ahhh, yes, the infinite “prospect”.
Luciano hurt his back and was likely immobile for the last several months. He didn’t put on ALL MUSCLE, he put on some fat. But now that he’s moving around I’m sure he’ll start putting on muscle.
Well said…lmao
Is it fair to say Hunter Bishop is officially “a bust?” Just saw he’s having surgery….again.
SF should trade Junis & a prospect to St. Louis (who needs more depth at the position) for Alec Burleson, who St. Louis will have a hard time getting him enough ABs. Then SF would have a good young 1B, because I’m not comfortable with Lamonte Wade as our everyday 1B. Burleson raked in AA & AAA