The Yankees announced that infielder/outfielder Marco Luciano has been sent outright to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment a week ago. He’ll stick in the organization as non-roster depth. He will likely be invited to big league camp in spring training.
No player wants to lose his roster spot but there’s probably at least some relief for Luciano, who has been riding the DFA carousel all winter. A longtime Giants prospect, that club put him on waivers in early December. He went to the Pirates, Orioles and Yankees via the waiver wire over the past few months. Now that he has finally cleared, he has been dropped to non-roster status but at least he now knows where to report when spring training begins next week.
Now 24, Luciano raked through the minor leagues as a prospect. He came up as a shortstop and was once considered the heir apparent to Brandon Crawford as the mainstay at that position in San Francisco.
However, he didn’t find as much success in the upper levels of the minors. He also struggled defensively and the Giants moved him to left field last year, with Willy Adames signed to take over shortstop, only putting more pressure on his bat.
Over the past two years, Luciano has taken 939 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level, with 33 home runs in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He drew a walk in 16% of his trips to the plate, an excellent clip, but was also punched out 29.1% of the time. His combined .229/.354/.400 line in that two-year span translated to a 101 wRC+. Luciano also exhausted his three option years over the past three seasons. He got brief looks in the majors, getting sent to the plate 126 times, but struck out in 35.7% of those trips while producing a .217/.286/.304 line.
Given the former prospect pedigree and his relative youth, teams are clearly still interested, hence all the waiver claims. But the strikeouts, lacks of options and defensive questions all pushed him to a fringe roster position.
The Yankees will try to unlock something with Luciano in Triple-A. He only played the outfield in 2025 but the Yanks announced him as an infielder/outfielder, so perhaps they will try him on the dirt a bit. He does hit from the right side and the Yanks have a fairly lefty-heavy lineup. They have been connected to righty bats like Paul Goldschmidt, Randal Grichuk and Austin Slater in free agency but perhaps Luciano can offer some help in that department as the season goes along. If he gets added back to the roster at some point, he is out of options but has less than a year of service time and can therefore be controlled for six seasons before reaching free agency.
Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
Probably better than Volpe. Give him a shot.
Watch it.
That’s right. Watch it! Crashman will run Volpe out there with one leg just to prove you wrong.
If Volpe does not show significant improvement by all-star break I am pretty confident his days as a Yankee starter are coming to an end. In fact he will be a non tender candidate since the lockout will all but end his career as a Yankee as they won’t pay him $8 million he will get as 2nd arbitration eligible.
Not “Lucky” Luciano.
Actually he finally lucked out! No more DFA’s and a good stash just in case.
i wouldn’t say ‘good’ but a scratch ticket. There is a reason the Giants moved him off SS.
The stove is HOT
More like LuciaNO job
The end of the DFA run!
Good for him. At least he is in AAA for a contender. He was the hot potato. It does confirm what the Giants believe and that is Luciano can’t play SS. If Dominquez and Jones can lock down the 3rd OF spot he isn’t seeing the majors.
Meh
Giants fan. Wish him luck. He always looked lost when he was called up. Hard to say how much was physical (he just isn’t that good at making contact) vs mental (always pressing because there were high expectations, he was shuttled back and forth between AAA and the majors, plus the added pressure of probably being slotted for the wrong position)..
I will say this: he “looks” like a hitter. The stance reminds me of Renteria, he uses the whole field, and the bat speed is definitely there.
He’s a mystery. Good luck to him (and I guess, by association, the Yankees).
As a Giant fan…I’ve been keeping track of him for years and years – he’s just out of runway… but the Yankees will give him one more chance…
however…he’s not even an AAAA player… so don’t get your hopes too high
Even if this baseball thing doesn’t work out he’s got an Italian sounding name that I think would lend well to opening a popular pizza and pasta restaurant in the Bronx. Or maybe “Luciano’s Italian Deli.” if he’s more of a sandwich guy. Glad he found a new home in New York
Rumored to be clearing room to sign Miguel Andujar.
There’s still hope for Luciano – outrighted to AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre – one stop away from fulfilling his dream
Best of luck Luciano
Man that picture just gets sadder and sadder. C’mon Twins, Cards, certainly a rebuild team could give him a chance.
With 3 teams claiming him in relatively quick succession, I thought he might ride the DFA carousel for a while. But apparently interest was limited to just those 3 teams. He has some skills. Here’s hoping he can finally make use of them.