No. 11 prospect McCray gets call to The Show; Luciano optioned

SAN FRANCISCO -- Last month, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said the Giants decided to trade Jorge Soler to the Braves to open up at-bats for rookie Marco Luciano at the designated hitter spot.

“This season for us really has been about some breakthroughs by young players,” Zaidi said. “Oftentimes, those breakthroughs don’t happen until you give a guy a real opportunity.”

Luciano’s opportunity lasted all of 21 at-bats, as the 22-year-old infielder was optioned back to Triple-A Sacramento to clear a spot on the 26-man roster for outfielder Grant McCray, who earned his first big league callup prior to the Giants’ 13-2 loss to the Braves on Wednesday night.

Luciano hit .190 with nine strikeouts over his last seven games and quickly found himself passed on the DH depth chart by newcomers Jerar Encarnacion and Mark Canha. The Giants wanted to take some pressure off their highly touted prospect by having him focus on hitting, but their reluctance to use him in the middle infield -- which currently features Tyler Fitzgerald at shortstop and a Brett Wisely/Casey Schmitt platoon at second base -- ultimately cut off other potential avenues to playing time in the big leagues.

“Things can change in a hurry,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Again, 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 try to envision more at-bats for Luciano, but it kind of dried up in a hurry.”

McCray, ranked the Giants’ No. 11 prospect per MLB Pipeline, went 0-for-4 in his Major League debut, but his presence in center field gave the Giants one of their strongest defensive alignments of the season behind left-hander Robbie Ray. McCray’s arrival allowed the Giants to shift Heliot Ramos back to a corner outfield spot alongside Mike Yastrzemski, with Michael Conforto getting the start at DH on Wednesday.

Unfortunately for the Giants, McCray didn’t see much action behind Ray, who struggled to throw strikes in his fifth start since returning from Tommy John surgery. The 32-year-old left-hander hit the first two batters he faced and then issued back-to-back walks to force in a run and keep the bases loaded for Michael Harris II, who crushed a misplaced curveball into McCovey Cove.

Ray departed after allowing five runs on the one hit over two-thirds of an inning, matching the shortest outing of his career.

“That was a weird one,” said Ray, who threw 39 pitches. “I felt really good warming up before the game. Just came out in the first inning and was just a little off. It was one of those ones where it’s kind of an anomaly because I felt so good and the results weren’t there at all. Just move past it and look forward to the next one.”

The Giants were forced to use five relievers to cover the remaining 8 1/3 innings, including Yastrzemski, who volunteered to take the mound in the top of the ninth and gave up two runs on three hits in his Major League pitching debut. The drubbing clinched a series defeat for San Francisco (61-62), which fell 4 1/2 games behind the Braves in the National League Wild Card standings and slipped below .500 after losing its fourth game in a row.

“Not ideal,” Yastrzemski said. “Today was just a tough one to swallow.”

Logan Webb will face off against fellow All-Star Max Fried as the Giants try to avoid being swept in Thursday afternoon’s series finale at Oracle Park.

The lopsided defeat tempered some of the early buzz over McCray’s debut, but the Giants hope the 23-year-old will continue to help upgrade their defense down the stretch.

Ramos had stepped in to play center field following the season-ending injury to Jung Hoo Lee, but he ranked last in the Majors with -7 outs above average at the spot and likely profiles as more of a corner outfielder in the long run. McCray, by contrast, is viewed as a true center fielder who can bring more speed and athleticism to the roster and potentially spark the Giants in the same way Fitzgerald has in recent weeks.

“It’s just as much about the defense and what we’ve seen Tyler bring to the table as far as athleticism on the bases and so forth,” Melvin said. “And [McCray’s] swinging the bat well. He’s actually swinging it better in Triple-A than he was in Double-A. We’ll see where it goes. But for right now, we’re excited about having another athletic guy in there in center field. He seems to play really well.”

McCray said he had just woken up in Sacramento on Wednesday morning when he received a call from River Cats manager Dave Brundage informing him that he’d been promoted to the big leagues.

“I thought I was still dreaming, honestly,” McCray said. “I cried a little bit.”

A 2019 third-round Draft pick, McCray opened the season at Double-A Richmond and slashed .210/.313/.420 with six home runs over 50 games before moving up to Sacramento in June. The left-handed hitter put up even better numbers once he joined the River Cats, batting .272/.347/.471 with six homers and eight steals over 47 games.

“Once I got called up to Triple-A, I feel like everything kind of got a little easier,” McCray said. “I realized I’m one step away from the big leagues. Just play hard, play the game right, keep your head down and just work. Everything will fall into place. It looks like it has.”