Impact of Ahmed’s return from injured list for Giants Wisely, Luciano originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area.
SAN FRANCISCO — It took a little longer than initially expected, but shortstop Nick Ahmed has returned to the Giants.
Ahmed was activated from the disabled list before Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels at Oracle Park. The two-time Gold Glove winner had been recovering from a sprained left wrist suffered after being hit by a liner in early May.
Ahmed struggled during his rehab and missed 30 games. Prior to the injury, he was batting .236 with 11 RBIs in 36 games.
“It’s been a little longer than we originally anticipated, but wrist conditions are hard to predict,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “I know he’s happy to be back.”
Casey Schmidt, who had filled in for Brett Wisely during Ahmed’s absence, was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento to make room on the roster.
Wiseley has been one of San Francisco’s best hitters recently, going 19-for-55 (.345 batting average) over his past 16 games and entering Friday’s game batting .317.
Melvin was asked about the idea of platooning Ahmed with left-handed hitter Wisely.
“Brett will play as well,” Melvin said. “Wiseley played well, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Marco Luciano also returned from the disabled list and was optioned to Sacramento on Thursday. The Giants’ promising infielder is hoping to return to the majors after playing nine games with the major league team earlier this season with very inconsistent results. Luciano batted .375 with three multi-hit games but committed five errors, four of which came after the ninth inning.
Melvin and Giants brass remain confident in Luciano’s abilities.
“He had a great at-bat. He’s been a little tough defensively and that’s what bothers me a little bit,” Melvin said. “He’s capable of playing well there. He just needs to have a couple of games in a row where he feels good defensively. He definitely has the ability to do that. He played pretty well defensively when he got here last year.”
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