Luciano No. 5 in new Top 100 Prospects list
Bart (No. 16), Matos (No. 84), Ramos (No. 87) also make the cut
OAKLAND -- Top Giants prospect Marco Luciano's stock continues to rise across the industry.
The 19-year-old shortstop is now ranked the No. 5 overall prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline’s updated list of Top 100 prospects, which was released on Thursday. Luciano is one of four Giants prospects to crack the Top 100, joining catcher Joey Bart (No. 16) and outfielders Luis Matos (No. 84) and Heliot Ramos (No. 87).
Luciano opened the season at Low-A San Jose, where he hit .278 with a .930 OPS and 18 home runs over 70 games before earning a promotion to High-A Eugene. He’s struggled a bit since joining the Emeralds on Aug. 4, batting .170 with a .526 OPS and one home run over his first 13 games, but he’s the youngest player in the league and is likely still adjusting to facing more advanced competition at the next level.
Luciano is viewed as a huge piece of the Giants’ next core, but he’s still a couple of years away from reaching the Majors, which likely played into the Giants’ decision to sign incumbent shortstop Brandon Crawford to a two-year, $32 million extension last week.
Matos isn’t far behind Luciano and appears to be well on his way to making his own jump to Eugene. The 19-year-old Venezuelan entered Friday batting .326 with an .871 OPS and 12 home runs over 84 games with San Jose this year, allowing him to leapfrog Ramos as the top outfield prospect in the Giants’ system.
Right-hander Will Bednar, the Giants’ 2021 first-round Draft pick out of Mississippi State, debuted at No. 7 on the Giants’ Top 30 prospects list. Two other 2021 draftees, left-hander Matt Mikulski (No. 10) and right-hander Eric Silva (No. 22), are also included in the Giants’ updated Top 30 rankings.