Marco Luciano crushes first Triple-A homer for RailRiders

Marco Luciano’s first Triple-A homer for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre came with a jolt: a 103 mph opposite-field drive to right-center that sent George Lombard Jr. home and announced the former top prospect’s arrival in a new system. The two-run shot off Syracuse right-hander Jonah Tong was Luciano’s first home run for the RailRiders and the swing that turned a busy offensive night into a statement game.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rolled past Syracuse 11-3, and Luciano was right in the middle of the damage. The RailRiders hit five home runs overall, with Luciano’s blast opening the door for more thunder later in the inning. Seth Brown followed with another two-run homer, stretching the lead to 7-1 and underlining how quickly the game slipped away from the Syracuse Mets once the RailRiders started stacking hard contact.

For Luciano, the homer carried more weight than one game in May. The Yankees claimed the 24-year-old off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles on January 22, then outrighted him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on February 3. He arrived with something to prove after spending all of 2025 in Triple-A Sacramento, where he hit .214 with 23 homers, 66 RBI, 85 walks and 10 stolen bases in 125 games. The power was still there in Sacramento, but the consistency lagged behind the reputation that once made him one of the Giants’ most closely watched young hitters.

That reputation was real. Luciano signed with San Francisco for $2.6 million on July 2, 2018, out of San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic, and MLB.com ranked him as the Giants’ top prospect while keeping him on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list from 2020 through 2024. Now listed at 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, the right-handed hitter is trying to turn a fresh start into more than a hot week. He entered the season with an encouraging spring-training moment for the Yankees, including an RBI single on March 14, and he has opened his first five games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre batting .333 with six hits, one homer, three RBI and six runs.

That is the kind of start that can change the conversation quickly in Triple-A. A former elite prospect rarely gets many clean chances to reset his value, but Luciano’s first swing of real consequence for the RailRiders was loud, opposite-field, and fast enough to remind evaluators why he once sat near the top of the Giants’ pipeline.