The Orioles have claimed outfielder Marco Luciano off waivers from the Pirates, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. The Bucs designated him for assignment last month. The O’s will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man spot.
DFA limbo is normally capped at one week but the rules are clearly different around the holidays, even if the specifics of the exceptions aren’t publicly known. Luciano was bumped off Pittsburgh’s roster on December 19th, almost three weeks ago.
The 24-year-old Luciano was once one of the top prospects in baseball. The Giants gave him a $2.6MM signing bonus in 2018 as an international amateur out of the Dominican Republic. He flashed huge power potential from the shortstop position and Baseball America ranked him the #12 prospect in the league in 2021. Since then, his glovework tailed off to the extent that he was moved to left field, putting more pressure on him to provide value with the bat. Unfortunately, significant strikeout issues have plagued him since reaching the upper levels of the minors.
He has taken 939 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level over the past two years. His 16% walk rate in that sample is massive but he’s also been punched out at a 29.1% clip, leading to a .229/.354/.400 line and 101 wRC+. He also has 126 big league plate appearances with a 35.7% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate, .217/.286/.304 line and 68 wRC+.
Luciano exhausted his final option season last year, pushing him to a fringe roster position. The Giants put him on waivers in early December. The Pirates scooped him up but he was nudged off their roster a few weeks later.
The Orioles are one of the most aggressive clubs when it comes to claiming players off waivers, often putting the same players back on the wire later on. The ideal outcome in that scenario is that the player stays in the organization without taking up a roster spot. He can then be retained as depth and be added back to the roster if he earns a spot.
The best-case scenario in that situation is Ryan O’Hearn. The O’s acquired him from the Royals in January of 2023 and then designated him for assignment a few days later. He cleared waivers but eventually hit his way back onto the roster and was a productive member of the club for over two years.
That is perhaps the plan with Luciano, as it’s hard to see a path for him earning a regular role on the current roster. The Orioles have an outfield mix consisting of Colton Cowser, Taylor Ward, Dylan Beavers, Tyler O’Neill, Jeremiah Jackson, Leody Taveras, Heston Kjerstad, Reed Trimble and Jhonkensy Noel. The designated hitter spot doesn’t provide much relief as the O’s are likely going to have Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo sharing the catching duties. There’s also the first base group consisting of Pete Alonso, Coby Mayo and Ryan Mountcastle, which should spill into the DH spot.
Luciano has fewer than three years of service time and hasn’t been outrighted in his career. That means he would not have the right to elect free agency if he eventually clears outright waivers. That may be his fate with the Orioles or some other club but he gets a roster spot for now after a long holiday in limbo.
Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
Still in Orange & Black!
They claimed Pedro Leon and then designated in for assignment, wonder how O’s look at him.
Luci will be DFA by the O’s too in the hopes of stashing him in the minors.
This could happen several more times before the season starts.
They may pull it off. I would have thought the White Sox or another lower team would have grabbed him. I don’t think anyone else would grab him.
See if they can claim Jack Suwinski too.
Suwinski makes more sense for the Os, he feels like a fun 4th OF option. Luciano is just a prayer her figures it out.
Orioles are one of the most frequent abusers of the waiver system. There’s no way they want Luciano on their roster. They’ll wait until a strategic moment and then waive him themselves, hoping he sneaks through so they can outright him.
The term “abusers” is really overstating the process and entirely too aggressive and misleading. Every other team can put a waiver claim on any player and do the same thing, and it happens to some players several times. Nothing is being done outside of the rules or in an effort to subvert them.
Right because this doesn’t happen to literally every single team lmao. How many times do you see these Dodger “top prospects” pan out? One in 10. Sit down.
Patrick Bailey – Giants Starting C – Top 5 giants prospect from ’21-’23 by FanGraphs
Casey Schmitt – Starting 2B – Ranked 7th in ’23 by FG
Heliot Ramos – Starting LF – Top 5 Giants prospect from ’18-’22 by FG
Luis Matos – Starting RF – Top 5 Giants prospect from ’20-’23 by FG
Logan Webb – #1 Pitcher – Ranked #6 in SFG by FG in ’20
Landon Roupp – #5 Pitcher – Ranked #8 in SFG by FG in ’23
“they never make the playoffs” yeah only 3 world series in 5 years as recently as twelve seasons ago
Quiet my little child. Every year you hear about all these top dodger prospects of which most never pan out. Point is this happens to every team. No need to be so sensitive little one.
Schwender it doesn’t help your case to bring up Ramos, Matos and Schmitt
Hence why I used the Dodgers as an example dingus, becuase they’ve clearly been the most successful team in the past decade but still have prospects who fail. Mad I said dodgers, here, Yankees, Redsox, Astros, Cubs. Go sit down, I’ll let you know when you can speak my child
A more logical argument would be that the Giants don’t know how to develop the prospects, or more specifically that they mishandled Luciano’s development. But perhaps there’s logic to your conclusion, just not sure what it is.
A’s missed a little trick here
The new Ramon Urias super utility player?
if some % of these claim and timing DFAs result in the ability to stash the Quad A players in Norfolk, honestly there isn’t much downside of taking a chance on the former prospect lottery tickets.
there will certainly be some cycling of these players up from Norfolk to Baltimore throughout the year. last year’s use of players was well documented.
as noted in the article, O’Hearn’s success only encourages the gymnastics. props to Eve Rosenbeum for this strategy to improve spots #25 and #26 on the active roster.
Well I hope he turns out to be the new Ramon Urias super utility player for the O’s…
Please explain how it is that Giants’ prospects are overrated? All prospects are rated independently by BA, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, etc. Are you suggesting that these institutions conspired together to overrate Giants prospects specifically?
Besides, Luciano is no different than guys like Mickey Moniak, Brady Aiken, Mark Appel, AJ Puk, Keston Huira (I could go on), or any other top ranked prospected that failed or at best became a journeyman. What happened with Luciano is typical of every MLB team.
No, you said, and I quote: “Giants prospects are overrated”
Again, the Giants do not rate their own prospects. That’s done by others independently of the Giants.
If you meant that the Giants are poor at developing talent, why didn’t you say that in the first place instead of posting something completely illogical?
You’re the one that seems to have addled-brained thinking. If anyone needs to stay off mind altering drugs it’s you.
You keep posting absolute nonsense and are deluded enough to believe you’re being clear. You are clear enough though for me to see the irrational thinking and faulty conclusions of your posts.
@antony
1. Why are you so angry?
2. Complaining about someone’s reading comprehension while your sentence needs proofreading first is incredible irony.
Not the orioles news we’re looking for
Marco is “Lucky” to be a Luciano and a new Oriole.
Hopefully Orioles will give Luciano the opportunity to develop & contribute