SAN FRANCISCO — Two weeks since the Giants’ top prospect was welcomed back to the majors with a public proclamation of playing time from the team’s top boss, Marco Luciano found himself in an increasingly familiar setting Tuesday night.
The 22-year-old shortstop was summoned into manager Bob Melvin’s office and braced himself for more bad news.
“It’s a hard one when you’ve done it a few times. He’s heard me. He kind of knows the drill,” Melvin said Wednesday, explaining the news that he informed Luciano of the previous night, that he had been optioned back to Triple-A Sacramento after another limited look in the big leagues.
Despite Farhan Zaidi outlining everyday opportunities for Luciano at designated hitter after dealing Jorge Soler to the Braves, the role never materialized and the Giants determined just two weeks into the experiment that their roster required more speed, athleticism and defensive versatility.
Those needs were better-served by Grant McCray, the club’s 87th overall draft pick in 2019 who was called up and made his major-league debut in center field, batting ninth, Wednesday night against Braves right-handed starter Grant Holmes.
“Things can change in a hurry,” Melvin said. “We’re trying to run our best lineup out there and have our best complement on a particular day. It was easy at that point in time to envision more at-bats for Luciano, but it kind of dried up in a hurry.”
With the Giants struggling to score runs and Jerar Encarnacion and Mark Canha already providing right-handed options off the bench, Melvin explained the move was “about the defense right now and some more athleticism,” noting the contributions from another rookie and fellow member of the 2019 draft class, Tyler Fitzgerald.
“It’s just as much about the defense and what we’ve seen Tyler bring to the table as well as far as athleticism on the bases and so forth,” Melvin said. “And he’s swinging the bat well. We’ll see how it goes, but for now we’re excited about having another athletic guy out there in center field.”
The son of former major-league outfielder Rodney McCray, the former third-round pick has been considered one of the most dynamic athletes in the Giants’ farm system since they selected him out of Lakewood Ranch High School (Brandenton, Fla.) but has only begun to mature offensively since reaching Triple-A in June.
In his first 47 games at the level, McCray has struck out at the lowest rate of his career — 25.5% of his plate appearances — while batting .272 with six home runs, 12 doubles, four triples and an .818 OPS. In 437 career minor-league games, McCray has batted .265/.361/.443 with 53 homers, 85 doubles and 27 triples, striking out 29.1% of the time.
“Once I got called up to Triple-A, I felt like everything just got a little easier,” McCray said, attributing the success to “just trying to be early. As early as I can seeing the ball. Get my foot down early and just be relaxed. Just be patient and not try to do too much. … I realized I’m one step away from the big leagues. Just play hard, play the game and work and everything will fall into place. It looks like it has.”
McCray said his parents were planning to surprise him by meeting him in Sacramento on Thursday. He got to call them Wednesday morning with even more exciting news. Luckily Rodney and Penny were able to change their travel plans and make it to Oracle Park in time for first pitch.
“I thought I was still dreaming. I cried a little bit and then called my mom, called my dad and everything,” McCray said. “I was like, ‘Hey, surprise!’ … My mom cried. My dad was out playing golf — always — but he was just excited, saying I knew it was coming. It was about that time.”
McCray should challenge Fitzgerald (30.0 feet per second sprint speed) and Matt Chapman (28.7 ft/sec) as the fastest runners on the team.
While he has slowed down with only 14 stolen bases this season, between Single-A San Jose and High-A Eugene in 2022 and ’23, McCray swiped 95 bases in 115 opportunities, an 82.6% success rate. The Giants rank last in the majors with 47 steals in 65 attempts, led by Fitzgerald and Chapman with 12 apiece.
“I think (my speed) will play as it always does,” McCray said. “Help me steal them hits. Get them hits for myself. Change the game as a base runner. … I take pride in my defense and I work really hard for my pitchers and my team.”
Luciano’s role had been reduced to mostly being used as a late-inning pinch-runner, receiving 21 at-bats since Soler was traded July 30. He started five of the first six games but had only three hits while striking out eight times and appeared in only two of their eight games since.
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In 11 games since debuting Aug. 2 in Cincinnati, Encarnacion is batting .237 with a .687 OPS. Canha has batted .333 with a .757 OPS in eight games since being acquired from Detroit.
At Triple-A, Melvin said Luciano will continue to get work at both second base and shortstop.
The Giants’ second base platoon pairing of Brett Wisely and Casey Schmitt hasn’t exactly been tearing the cover off the ball either — a combined 93 wRC+ since the start of August — but Melvin said they weren’t comfortable with playing Luciano there. He only began getting work at second after he made five errors at shortstop in a seven-game stretch.
“We didn’t want to do that to him, basically. He just started playing second base and we felt more than anything it was the bat we were looking for for some help and that it would maybe take a little off his plate defensively,” Melvin said. “It’s more about, ‘Hey, look, at some point in time you’re going to have an opportunity and you have to take advantage of it. It looked like it was a real time for you, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. Some of the other guys were swinging the bat a little better.’”
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