Giants’ surprising Soler move finally should open door for Luciano

Giants’ surprising Soler move finally should open door for Luciano originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants enlisted Wilmer Flores and Thairo Estrada to help close the deal with Jorge Soler in February. A few days into camp, they held a small press conference on a patio at Scottsdale Stadium to introduce a player they thought might hit cleanup for them for the next three seasons.

But it didn’t take long for team officials to start getting an ominous feeling. They didn’t feel that Soler, who had 36 home runs in Miami last year, was all that comfortable hitting at chilly Oracle Park, and the power numbers matched those suspicions. As the first half went on, another thought started to settle in.

Bob Melvin needed the DH spot for several of his veterans, and at times the Giants even wanted to give Heliot Ramos a breather by letting him just focus on hitting, but they had committed the spot to just one player, and not just for this season.

Late Monday night, the Giants made a trade to try and clear things up a bit. Soler got hot over the last week, and when the Atlanta Braves called in search of a reunion, the front office saw an opportunity to make a surprising salary-dump move.

The Giants sent Soler and Luke Jackson back to Atlanta, where both were World Series champions in 2021. In return, they got injured left-handed reliever Tyler Matzek and young infielder Sabin Ceballos, who is more of a mid-tier prospect.

The deal mostly is about clearing Soler’s salary, but not just for this season.

The Giants will save about $4 million this year, but Soler was owed $26 million over the following two seasons, which the Braves are fully picking up. They also are now responsible for Jackson’s contract, which has a team option that won’t be picked up, but also a $2 million buyout.

The move was the first significant one before Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline, and it signals that perhaps the Giants won’t fully pick a direction. Ditching that much salary and your leadoff hitter would seem to indicate a sale, but that’s not how the Giants view themselves.

They have talked to teams about their starting pitchers, including Blake Snell, but as of Monday evening, they had not gained any traction. They do not expect to deal Snell before the 3 p.m. deadline on Tuesday, although they continue to get calls on both him and veteran right-hander Alex Cobb.

If a deal is made Tuesday, it would open up a rotation slot for rookie Hayden Birdsong, who would add to the youth movement. The Giants also hope to find a true center fielder, which would allow them to move Ramos back to a corner.

They’re ready to rely more on youth, and the Soler move is part of that. The Giants have been looking for a way to clear at-bats for 22-year-old Marco Luciano, who has six homers and a strong strikeout-to-walk ratio in Triple-A this month. Their plan is to recall Luciano and let him try and stick this time.

Luciano’s previous big league time has been at shortstop, but the Giants finally are willing to admit that he isn’t a defensive fit at the position, which now belongs to Tyler Fitzgerald, anyway. Luciano has been playing second base in the minors, but the staff isn’t yet fully comfortable with the transition. He seems likely to get the majority of the second half at-bats at DH if he can hit the ground running, with others sliding in as they need defensive breaks.

Soler made 91 starts at DH as a Giant, posting a .749 OPS but just 12 homers. When Soler was introduced in February, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi mentioned something that ended up being prophetic.

“When we did a Zoom call with Jorge a couple of weeks back, Bob said something about hitting cleanup,” Zaidi said back then. “And Jorge said, ‘I like hitting leadoff, too.’ “

Soler did a nice job in the role at times, but that’s not why the Giants initially gave him a three-year contract. They have plenty of others — Fitzgerald, LaMonte Wade Jr., Mike Yastrzemski — who can slide in atop the lineup, but they were hopeful Soler could finally give them a 30-homer presence. They’ll now see if Luciano is ready to provide that type of thunder any time soon.

Monday’s trade will save the Giants more than $30 million overall, although it does come with some risk. First and foremost, they bolstered the lineup of a team they are chasing in the wild-card race, where they have very little margin for error.

They also are putting a lot on the shoulders of Luciano, and if any more veterans are dealt, they will be awfully reliant on rookies as they chase an MLB playoff spot. Given the way this season has gone, though, that’s a plan that right now probably isn’t all that scary to Zaidi and the rest of the front office.

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