Though the New York Yankees’ outfield is loaded with talent, there’s still a need for right-handed bats.
Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge will start every game, but in theory, the Yankees might like to find a platoon fit for center fielder Trent Grisham. Accordingly, we’ve heard them connected to veterans like Austin Slater, Randal Grichuk, and Miguel Andujar in free agency of late.
However, the Yankees also just managed to keep an intriguing right-handed bat in their system despite an ongoing 40-man roster crunch, which could prove to be important at some point this season.
According to the official transactions log and a team announcement, 24-year-old outfielder Marco Luciano cleared waivers on Tuesday. New York outrighted him to Triple-A Scranton, and barring any unforeseen developments, he’ll enter his first spring training as a member of the Yankees organization.
Luciano’s star has fallen quite a bit over the last few years, but at one point, he was one of baseball’s very best prospects. He was the No. 1 prospect in the San Francisco Giants for several years running, and in 2022, he peaked at No. 13 on MLB Pipeline’s overall top 100.
In 41 major league games, Luciano has batted .217 with a .590 OPS. He’s still looking for his first major league home run, though he hit 23 of them for the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate last year.
The Giants burned through all three of Luciano’s options, which led them to designate him for assignment in December. That started an unfortunate carousel, which led to incredibly brief stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles, both of whom seemingly hoped to do the same thing the Yankees just did: keep the player without using the 40-man spot on him.
Luciano now has a tough road ahead to proving himself at the major league level, but knowing he’ll be in the Yankees organization for a while should at least be a relief. He’ll look to hit the ground running in spring training and eventually earn a promotion back to the majors.
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