Delayed by a tight hamstring, Luciano debuted behind Logan Webb on Thursday, meaning he would quickly be put to the test with the majors’ top ground-ball pitcher on the mound. Given an opportunity to get his pitcher out of a long first inning, Luciano threw wide of first base, prolonging the frame and allowing a run to score.

“We lost the game because we had two situational at-bats where we didn’t get a run in and (Luciano) threw a ball away and made an error,” a frustrated Melvin said after the 2-1 exhibition loss to the D’backs. “The score would look completely different if we don’t throw a ball away and in the two situational at-bats, we get a run in. But it looked like he was more comfortable after that first inning.”

The Giants (0-4-2) have played six Cactus League contests and have yet to win any of them.

As much as Melvin would like to notch his first win, spring results don’t matter nearly as much as individual evaluations.

But, in case there was any question, “one game doesn’t impact anybody’s standing,” Melvin clarified after a difficult debut for their heralded shortstop.

One game is a small sample, but Luciano was provided many opportunities to showcase his defensive ability behind Webb.

With one run already in and a runner on third with one out in the first, Luciano lined up on the cut of the infield grass and cleanly picked a sharp chopper off the bat of Christian Walker. He checked Jake McCarthy back to third, then fired to first for the second out.

That should have been the most precarious point of the inning, and Webb should have walked off with only one run allowed. He induced a routine grounder to short from Geraldo Perdomo, but Luciano’s throw pulled David Villar off the bag at first base, allowing Perdomo to take second and McCarthy to score.

“I know he wasn’t too happy about that one play,” said Webb, who threw about 40 pitches over three innings, recording a pair of strikeouts. “But he’s a physical specimen. He’s always going to go out there and do his best. It was just exciting to see him back out there.”

Luciano declined an interview request through a club employee, who said he risked a fine if he missed the team bus.

Perhaps Luciano’s top competition for the shortstop job, Nick Ahmed, is slated to make his Cactus League debut Friday against the Rangers. A two-time Gold Glove winner, Ahmed’s defense isn’t in question, but he will be looking to prove there’s still gas in the tank after being released by the D’backs last September.

“He’s here for a reason,” Melvin said. “We’ve talked about improving our infield defense. He’ll be right in the middle of it. It’ll be a great competition for Marco. Nothing’s given to anybody. It’s about performance.”

Lee’s first homer

The Giants’ lone run came courtesy of Jung Hoo Lee, who continued to impress in his second game of the spring.

Leading off against Ryne Nelson, Lee whacked a low off-speed offering over the head of McCarthy in right and to the warning track, easily chugging into second base for a double. After being stranded on third, he one-upped himself in his next trip to the plate.

Challenged by a 94 mph fastball, Lee turned it around and sent a missile, clocked at 109.7 mph off the bat, just over the wall and onto the berm in right field, an estimated 418 feet from home plate. Lee rounded the bases nearly as quickly, timed at a tick over 4 seconds from home to first, according to Melvin.

“He’s gotten off to a nice, little start, hasn’t he?” Melvin said. “Fastballs, breaking balls — seems like he’s on everything.”

Here it is: Jung Hoo Lee’s first home run in an #SFGiants uniform

이정후 pic.twitter.com/rUdtLhGzlM

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) February 29, 2024

Nelson said he came into the game with no scouting report on Lee, but after facing him twice, “I know now he’s a pretty good hitter.”

The biggest adjustment, Lee said through interpreter Justin Han, wasn’t the velocity but the release point of Nelson, who stand 6-foot-3.

“Velocity is velocity. But the pitchers here in the major leagues, they’re really tall. Also their release point is really high,” Lee said. “That makes it look like the ball is faster. And then they have a different kind of movement, they travel really differently. So what I’ve been doing all winter is working with (pitching machines that mimic that release point). So I’m happy it’s coming out as results.”

For the first time, Lee lined up in center field behind Webb, giving him a new perspective on the team’s ace.

His takeaway wasn’t so different from many an outfielder to play behind Webb.

“Now I know that when Logan Webb is pitching,” Lee said, “it’s going to be an easy day for me.”

The 27-year-old right-hander brought these symptoms to the Giants’ medical staff, who recommended he visit a specialist. After being scratched from his first scheduled start of the spring Monday, Beck flew back to San Francisco, where vascular specialists at Stanford diagnosed him with an aneurysm in his upper arm, the club announced Thursday.

The outlook for Beck is unclear as he weighs treatment options, which manager Bob Melvin declined to discuss, though he ruled him out for Opening Day and said he would not pitch again for some time. Of more immediate concern was for his well-being than who might backfill his place in the starting rotation.

“We just want to make sure we get it taken care of and he moves on from there,” Melvin said. “It’s obviously not ideal.”

The condition, in which a blood vessel expands or bulges and can eventually rupture, is fairly novel within the game, where tendons, ligaments and soft tissue are usually of more concern. A 40-year veteran of the sport, Melvin said he could not remember the ailment presenting in any other player.

“I’ve never been with a teammate that’s had something like that happen to them,” staff ace Logan Webb said. “It’s scary. But also at the same time I’m happy they were able to find it now.”

Citing a 1999 study in the American Journal of Medicine that found aneurysms of the axillary artery had been “reported with increased frequency” in baseball players, Dr. Nirav Pandya, an orthopedic surgeon at UCSF, said that while it is “definitely not something that is common,” there is some precedent, particularly in pitchers.

“There are some case reports over the years of pitchers getting aneurysms of their axillary artery where the pec muscles compress the artery,” Pandya said, referencing the major vessel that brings oxygenated blood from the chest to the upper arm.

If treated with surgery, Pandya said, the timetable for recovery is typically about three months. In Beck’s case, he would then need to build back up to a starter’s workload, which typically takes all six weeks of spring training.

“I think we got on it pretty quickly,” Melvin said.

Turning his focus to the field, the Giants’ new manager is now staring down a gaping hole in his rotation, which had already sprung a leak with Keaton Winn’s recurring elbow issues. Beck was slotted in to be their fifth starter, behind Logan Webb, Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and Winn.

“It stinks,” Webb said. “I was super excited for him. I know he was super excited. Leading up to it I’d seen him throw a ton of bullpens and he looked really, really good.”

Sean Hjelle, Mason Black, Daulton Jefferies and Spencer Howard — arguably the top four potential fill-ins — have yet to record a clean outing among them, with Howard tagged for two homers and Hjelle for three runs on four hits in Wednesday’s exhibition loss to the A’s.

That said, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery remain available on the free-agent market.

You don’t have to remind Melvin.

“You think?” he responded when asked if either could help.

Roupp throws live

One pitcher who isn’t likely to be an option when they break camp but could make his debut later this season is Landen Roupp, a 25-year-old right-hander whom the Giants selected in the 12th round out of UNC-Wilmington in 2021.

After a disc injury in his lower back cut his season short in 2023, Roupp faced live hitters Wednesday for the first time this camp, throwing 25 pitches to non-roster catchers Jakson Reetz, Adrian Sugastey and Andy Thomas while the big-league squad was playing the A’s at Hohokam Stadium.

On the basis of his 1.74 ERA over the 10 starts he made at Double-A Richmond, with 42 strikeouts to just nine walks, Melvin singled out Roupp as one of the pitchers he was most intrigued to see this spring, and he finally got his chance.

“He’s got a really good arm,” Melvin said. “It’s an exciting pitcher.”

Roupp’s signature pitch is his curveball, which Reetz said “starts behind the right-handed hitter,” but what caught the catcher’s attention was his two-seam fastball, which sits in the mid-90s and he called “pretty nasty, as well.” The whole package? “I mean, he’s disgusting,” Reetz said.

Along with top left-handed pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt, who was shut down last season with an elbow injury, Melvin said that Roupp is one of “the guys we’ll probably slow-play a little bit and see how much time they get in spring, based on injuries last year.

“But guys that could be impactful as the year goes along and might be as talented of guys that we have.”

It remains to be seen whether either will see game action this spring, though Roupp said he’s “hoping and praying” the coaching and medical staffs will allow for it.

There is no timetable for Whisenhunt to face live hitters, Melvin said, a necessary step before stepping onto the mound in a game.

Roupp, who ended 2022 with five starts at Double-A in addition to the 10 he made last season, said he hopes to begin the season at Triple-A Sacramento.

“I would love to start in Triple-A, but if I’m healthy and pitching I don’t care,” he said. “I’ll pitch wherever, honestly, but Triple-A is definitely the goal.”

Notable

— RHP Keaton Winn (elbow) and RHP Kai-Wei Teng (oblique) are both targeting bullpen sessions over the weekend. Both pitchers have progressed to throwing from 105 feet off flat ground, according to the club. RHP Alex Cobb (hip) was scheduled to throw a bullpen Thursday.

Yastrzemski, 33, pointed to the outcome of the two times he put the ball in play as evidence of why he isn’t concerned by his delayed start.

In a 7-4 exhibition loss to the A’s, he came to the plate three times as the designated hitter, drawing a walk and twice flying out to left field.

“I got beat a little bit, but the fact that I’m executing what I’m trying to do on day one is really promising for me,” Yastrzemski said. “It’s one of those things that as you get older and you go through spring training multiple times … you start to understand what your process is versus everyone else’s. When you come out here and you’re working on things, kind of like what I was just talking to (hitting coach Pat Burrell) about, really working on staying behind the ball.”

Like Austin Slater, Yastrzemski was delayed to start camp and has not yet been cleared to play the field.

While Slater has been slow in his recovery from offseason elbow surgery, the origin of Yastrzemski’s shoulder ailment remains a mystery.

One morning in December, he said, he woke up with a sore shoulder. When it didn’t improve after a couple weeks off over the holidays, “I said, ‘All right, we’ve gotta get into some (physical therapy) and get this thing strengthened up and ready to go,'” Yastrzemski said.

On Wednesday, Yastrzemski accelerated his throwing program, playing catch out to 200 feet. He began camp by throwing from short distances two out of every three days, and when his shoulder responded well, progressed to playing catch every day leading up to his debut this week.

“I felt like I was physically ready to try to get air under the ball, versus throwing intently from a shorter position,” Yastrzemski said. “Wanted to see how I respond from that, so we’ll see how it feels tomorrow, but it feels good right now.”

While the Giants would love to have their expected Opening Day right fielder ready when they break camp, there is one early season series that Yastrzemski surely will not want to miss. The Giants travel to Boston for three games at Fenway Park, his Hall-of-Fame grandfather’s home ballpark, at the end of April.

“I think I started getting (ticket requests) like two years ago,” Yastrzemski chuckled. “I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be fun.”

Homer happy

The ball was jumping off the bats under the Wednesday afternoon sun, with the teams combining for five home runs.

Two came from the first two A’s batters to step to the plate against Giants starter Spencer Howard, who’s no stranger to the long ball. In camp as a non-roster invitee, Howard has appeared in 38 games for the Phillies and Rangers but is 3-11 with a 7.20 ERA and has allowed 26 homers in 115 career innings.

The 27-year-old right-hander is trying to make his case as a depth option for the rotation — which is looking increasingly important — but given the start in place of Mason Black, who was moved up to cover for the injured Tristan Beck, Howard was bitten by the same issues that have led him to his fourth organization in two years.

Leadoff man Ryan Noda deposited the second pitch he saw, a 94-mph fastball, onto the berm in left field, and the next batter, Zack Gelof, gave the same treatment to another heater to right field.

“We’re taking a look at everybody with some of the injuries we’ve had,” Melvin said. “If he wants to go out and make an impression, it was only gonna be an inning today, but when the first two guys hit homers, it gets your attention a little bit.”

A pair of Giants also recorded their first homers of the spring, with J.D. Davis taking a 1-2 fastball from Paul Blackburn deep to the opposite field, and Luis Matos showing off the extra muscle he put on with a three-run homer off Scott Alexander — one of three former Giants on the A’s pitching staff — that scraped the left field wall in the fifth.

Results don’t count, until they do

Melvin was feisty following his club’s fifth exhibition of the spring, which ended in a loss to his former team as his current club still searches for its first win.

In five spring games, the Giants have allowed 36 runs — 7.2 per game — all but nine of them coming in the first five innings, when both teams’ regulars are generally still in the game.

“We’re giving up way too many runs early in the games here and putting ourself in a hole,” Melvin said. “We’re scoring some runs, but we’re giving up way too many. It’s not a great feeling. … No one’s going to remember it, but we remember it right now. Every game you suit up for, you go out there to win, so no, we need to play better.”

Out jogged Daulton Jefferies, making the trek across the outfield grass to the pitcher’s mound for the first time in more than 20 months.

“Just when he took the mound, for me, that got my attention,” manager Bob Melvin said, reflecting a day later. “What he’s been through and how long it’s been, how many difficult situations he’s been through. That warmed my heart a little.”

On May 18, 2022, in his eighth start of the season, Jefferies coaxed Twins second baseman Jorge Polanco to chase a changeup off the plate for strike three and the final out of the fourth inning. He wouldn’t throw another competitive pitch again until Tuesday afternoon.

Jefferies was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, requiring season-ending surgery. Later, it was recommended he undergo the procedure commonly known as Tommy John surgery — repairing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow for a second time — and the arduous path back to the field that accompanies it.

“It was emotional, for sure,” said Jefferies, who pitched two innings, allowed a run on three hits and struck out one batter.

The Giants lost the spring exhibition, but for Jefferies, the win was getting back on the mound at all.

There is only a small — but growing — number of pitchers who have successfully come back from a second elbow reconstruction.

This season, Jefferies will look to add his name to the list, along with the Dodgers’ talented young right-hander Walker Buehler.

For every success story such as Nathan Eovaldi, who had his first operation in 2007 and another in 2016, there are pitchers who were never the same after their second. Before Brian Wilson became the Giants’ bearded closer, he had his first procedure in 2003. But after undergoing his second in 2012, he was out of baseball within two years.

Not only is the number of follow-up procedures growing, pitchers are undergoing their first at earlier ages and the time between operations is shrinking. Buehler first went under the knife in 2015, then again in 2022, while Jefferies’ window was even shorter, with surgeries in 2017 and 2022.

“It’s unfortunate that guys are having two now, but it’s realistic,” Jefferies said. “I think it’s just that guys are throwing a lot harder now. Guys are chasing velo now. I really don’t know. It’s a harsh reality. Like, it’s bad, but it’s beneficial that a lot of guys have had it because of the success rate and the guys having to get it are more hopeful because so many guys have come back from it.”

Crediting the support from his parents, John and Lisa, brother, Jake, and girlfriend, Natalie — and his 6-year-old Australian shepherd-border collie mix, Oakley —  Jefferies said the second time around was “breezy” compared to his first rehab process, which he said took an even larger mental toll than a physical one.

“A lot of hard work, a lot of support from family and friends, teammates, everyone,” he said. “It was a group effort.”

When his time finally came to begin warming up in the bullpen beyond the right field wall, Jefferies had to give himself a reminder.

“I threw my first one and I was like, ‘OK, I know that I just need to be slow. I feel really good,'” Jefferies said. “It was emotional, but it was good.”

His deceptive fastball sat in the low-to-mid 90s, and he used his signature changeup to induce a double-play ground ball. He also mixed in a new breaking ball he’s looking to add to his mix that would make him a more viable option as a starter.

While Melvin said the Giants will be careful with Jefferies this spring, the Cal product and former first-round pick said he hopes to be stretched out to five innings by the end of camp. Over three seasons in Oakland, all but four of his 14 appearances came as a starter, posting a 5.72 ERA.

With the statuses of Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck in question, the Giants could be in need of additional rotation options to begin the season.

“Depending on the role for him, he can get by with fastball-changeup,” Melvin said. “It looks really similar to what it did before. He’s got great command. He’s got a lot of deception in what he does. … We can stretch him out some. How much, I’m not sure yet, coming off the second one. It just depends on how he feels as we go along.”

“It’s very exciting,” manager Bob Melvin blurted at the mention of Jung Hoo Lee’s name Tuesday morning.

For the first time, Melvin wrote the name of the Giants’ biggest free-agent acquisition in the top spot of his lineup card. Occupying the bottom spot reserved for the starting pitcher, was another cause célèbre, Jordan Hicks, whose high heat lit up the Scottsdale Stadium radar gun for the first time, too.

It didn’t take long for either to show why they enticed the Giants to pay a nine-figure sum.

Backed into a two-strike count in his first at-bat, Lee slapped a single into right field, broke up a double play by bolting for second base, then scored without a throw when LaMonte Wade Jr. dropped a single into center field. It was the start of a five-run first inning that was capped by a grand slam from Patrick Bailey.

“After kind of a long wait, to be delayed a little bit, and to go up there and get a hit in his first at-bat, score a run, looked pretty good to me,” Melvin said afterward.

Nicknamed the “Grandson of the Wind,” it wasn’t just Lee who flew around the base paths. His helmet caught air, too.

Ha-Seong Kim, the last player to make a successful jump from Korea, apparently experienced the same issue. Lee is eagerly awaiting a custom model from the same company that outfitted Kim, so that the only thing moving around the bases is himself.

It didn’t take more than the naked eye to tell that Lee immediately became one of the quickest players on a team that stole the fewest bases in the majors last year. Belying his speed and nickname, though, Lee only swiped 69 bases in seven seasons, never more than 13 in one year.

“Until you really get him on the field and see what he can do, (you don’t know) what kind of havoc he can create,” Melvin said. “I think he’s kind of looking forward to being a little more aggressive on the bases. … He definitely has some speed. He had the ankle injury, and my understanding was last year they wanted him to be a little bit more careful. But from what we’ve seen there’s good foot speed, so we’re going to try to see what he can do.”

It wasn’t just Lee’s first game in the U.S., it was his first time on the field in seven months, since he injured his ankle last July.

His spring debut was delayed by tightness in his side, but Lee said he is “100%” recovered. He won’t play Wednesday against the A’s, Melvin said, but will be back atop the lineup Thursday.

The biggest question mark about Lee has been his ability to adjust to major-league pitchers, who throw harder and often with more movement than those in the KBO, which is generally considered about two levels below the majors.

He faced a stiff first test in George Kirby, the Mariners’ young ace who features six pitches and can crank his fastball into the upper 90s. (Hall of Fame baseball writer Peter Gammons paid a visit to camp Monday and mentioned Kirby as his favorite pitcher to watch in today’s game.)

“Personally I was satisfied,” Lee said of facing Kirby, with Justin Han interpreting from Korean. “He is a very known pitcher. I was at two strikes and thought let’s just make contact. … Talking about the fastball, for sure there is a difference. But I feel like the biggest difference will be the breaking ball speed. Compared to the KBO, the major leagues will be different.”

Hicks debuts

Lee wasn’t the only one who noticed the radar gun.

“I think I was a little excited. I threw a little harder than I was expecting that first inning,” Hicks said following his first Cactus League outing. “Looked back at the radar and it said 99, 98, and I had only hit 97 in lives. … I was amped up a little bit, spraying some pitches, but overall I felt like I liked where my stuff was today.”

In fact, Hicks registered multiple readings of triple digits against the first batter he faced.

Throwing about 40 pitches over 1⅔ innings, Hicks used his heater, splitter and slider to record four strikeouts. However, he also walked a batter and served up a two-run homer to Mitch Garver, who swatted a low-and-inside offering over the visitor’s bullpen in left field.

“I thought he threw the ball well,” Melvin said. “His ball was sinking, running. Obviously one pitch ends up with two runs. We weren’t gonna pitch him past 40, so (that’s) the reason he came out with two outs in the second. But looked like he really settled in more in the second inning as far as strikes.”

The five-run first meant a lot of downtime in the dugout for Hicks, a quirk of being a starting pitcher that’s new to the former reliever.

When he came back out for the second inning, Hicks’ first fastball was 93 mph and he sat in the mid-90s but recorded two quick outs before bumping up against his pitch count. As he builds up from a reliever’s workload, the next step will likely be three innings and 45 pitches.

“I’m glad it happened in the first outing just to get my feet with it again, just that long sit,” Hicks said. “It was good to get that. I know it’s going to be part of the game. …  I feel like that was a good workload. Obviously 30 in the first inning is not where I want to be. I was amped up a little bit, spraying some pitches, but overall I felt like I liked where my stuff was today.”

Notable

— OF Mike Yastrzemski (shoulder) will make his spring debut Wednesday at designated hitter, and RHP Spencer Howard will get the nod on the mound. Mason Black was moved up to start Monday in place of Tristan Beck (right hand discomfort), so Howard, a non-roster invitee, was chosen to fill the opening. “He’s got some experience,” Melvin said, “and we’re a little thin with our starters right now.”

Some are downright livid.

A player who hit .194 last season was not re-signed, and apparently, this is treasonous behavior from Giants director of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.

Look, Brandon Crawford is a Giants legend. He’s arguably the best shortstop in franchise history. No one else will ever wear No. 35 for San Francisco again — that’s the number for the brilliant fielder who is going to have the plaques and statues outside of Oracle Park.

But Crawford agreed to a deal with the Cardinals on Monday. The Giants signed former Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed to a minor-league deal on Monday, too.

It has gone over poorly.

I know sports-talk radio callers and social media posters shouldn’t be considered representative of the masses, but it’s hard to ignore them when there are so many.

There’s strength in numbers, after all, and these folks feel strongly that the Giants made a mistake in not re-signing Crawford.

We can all agree this de-facto swap wasn’t great timing by Zaidi. He invited the question: “Why didn’t the Giants just keep Crawford?”

But the answer to that question is simple:

Brandon Crawford could not, under any circumstances, be a backup shortstop for the 2024 San Francisco Giants.

And for the incredible, laudable play he gave the city, region, and team, that’s all Crawford could be for this upcoming edition of the black and orange.

The reason Crawford cannot be a backup was proven — somewhat ironically — by the outpouring of disgust and anger that started Monday and rolled into Tuesday.

There’s a lot of deserved love for Crawford. But that loyalty from the fanbase is also creating some blind spots.

Let’s be crystal clear about this: Crawford stunk last year. He couldn’t hit a lick — his bat speed was in the tank — and his defense, once the standout part of his game, took a step back. He was defensively as good as third baseman J.D. Davis in Outs Above Average last year, which is a fancy way of saying he was “fine.”

A player who is fine in the field and brutal at the plate should not be starting at shortstop for any team in baseball.

Sorry, the reality is harsh. Crawford’s decline doesn’t take away from all the great memories he made for the Giants.

But Zaidi and Bob Melvin have to win this season. And they believe that Marco Luciano, the team’s top position player prospect, is ready to take on the shortstop role full-time.

Luciano played 14 games last year and hardly took the game by storm. He posted a .641 OPS in 45 plate appearances, with three extra-base hits. He was unremarkable in the field.

Small sample size? You bet.

But it’s fair to suggest that Luciano, 22, might need some time to establish himself as a big leaguer. The Giants believe in his talent and want to give him every opportunity to do that. If it takes a few months for him to find his footing, so be it — the Giants will make that trade for what they imagine will be a decade of excellence.

You can agree or disagree with the Giants’ assessment of Luciano. I, for one, have my doubts about him at short. The team, however, is steadfast.

What you cannot debate is that having Crawford serving as a backup to a kid — and, again, there was no other role for the veteran on this team — would be terrible for Luciano’s development.

It has nothing to do with Crawford. He’s a pro.

It has everything to do with the fans.

If Crawford were on the roster and Luciano struggled out of the gate this season, do you think Giants fans would have patience?

Of course not. They’d be clamoring like crazy for Crawford, the same way they’re doing now.

Even if all things were equal — if both shortstops stinkl — at least they know No. 35.

There’s no way that energy wouldn’t seep into the clubhouse and front office. No one is on solid ground in those two areas right now — Zaidi and Melvin would only be able to hold off the horde for so long.

Meanwhile, no one will be calling up KNBR asking to play for Nick Ahmed, Tyler Fitzgerald, or Otto Lopez if Luciano has a couple oh-fers in a row and sails a throw to first.

Crawford is a legend, and it will be unsettling to see him wearing a Cardinals jersey — there’s no doubt about that.

But it should also be noted that he will be a potential backup for St. Louis’ young shortstop, Masyn Winn.

If Winn struggles out of the gate, Cardinals fans — who are even more vocal and crazed than Giants fans — won’t be rallying for Crawford to replace him every day. They don’t have a relationship with Crawford, so they’ll see the shortstop for what he is: a player whose days as an everyday player are behind him.

That was never going to be the case with the Giants. Not after a decade of brilliance, not after a career’s worth of memories.

Ready or not, it’s time for the kid now.

And that meant Crawford had to go.

It was revealed Tuesday that Tristan Beck had been scratched from his start the previous day — replaced by Mason Black — and flown back to San Francisco to be examined by doctors after experiencing soreness in his right hand.

Beck, 27, is already the second member of the projected starting five to be sidelined this spring, joining Keaton Winn, who just resumed throwing on Monday after being shut down for a week with elbow soreness.

“There’s a level (of concern),” Melvin acknowledged. “What level, I’m not sure yet.”

There’s enough ambiguity with both starters that each could be ready for the regular season, but their early health issues also raise the possibility of the Giants breaking camp without two-fifths of their projected starting rotation and not much depth behind them.

Beck will undergo tests to attempt to determine the cause of the soreness in his throwing hand, which has been a lingering issue, Melvin said.

“It’s been bothering him a little bit for a while,” Melvin said. “He’s kind of been pitching through it a bit. It just got to a point where we want to find out exactly what it is, and we don’t know what that is yet.”

Winn threw off flat ground from 75 feet on Monday and was expected to progress to 90 on Tuesday, according to Melvin. If the soreness doesn’t crop up again, the expectation is that the 26-year-old righty will be ready for Opening Day, if only stretched out to 70 or 80 pitches.

But while Winn was cleared by doctors, it was the second time he has experienced elbow soreness since being called up last season. The issues were different, Winn explained, with last year being a case of overuse and this spring ramping up velocity too rapidly, but nevertheless multiple elbow injuries are worrisome.

“With Keaton coming back, we still feel like there’s time for that,” Melvin said. “But you go through these things in spring training. Probably would be good if we didn’t have any more, but yeah.”

Melvin may have shown his hand as to who the top option may be if either isn’t ready for the season in giving the nod to Black, a 24-year-old right-hander who reached Triple-A Sacramento last season. However, the Giants have other options, such as non-roster invitees Spencer Howard and Daulton Jefferies, or they could stretch out Sean Hjelle, whom they planned to use as a reliever.

Kai-Wei Teng, 26, also had success last season with Triple-A Sacramento but only began his throwing progression last week after being sidelined early in camp with an oblique injury.

On the slow-moving free-agent market, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery remain available, as well as lower-priced options such as Michael Lorenzen and Noah Syndergaard.

Their other young arm, Kyle Harrison, looked to be in midseason form during his first start of the spring, striking out four over two scoreless innings against the Rangers, and their only offseason addition to the rotation, Jordan Hicks, is set to make his debut Tuesday against the Mariners.

The first decision facing Melvin, though, is who will start Wednesday’s exhibition against the A’s.

“I told Bryan (Price), we’re playing the A’s tomorrow,” Melvin joked. “How about bringing Webby back a little early.”

Commissioner visits

There was an important meeting on the players’ schedule for 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The commissioner was in the house.

Rob Manfred spent the bulk of his Tuesday morning at the Giants’ facilities in Scottsdale. His first order of business was holding court with the players.

The meeting, according to multiple sources, was an “open forum” where the topics of discussion surrounded many of the issues likely to come up in the next round of collective bargaining agreement negotiations between the league and the players’ union.

At hand were teams’ regional sports networks and their impact on spending, the potential for an automated strike zone and issues with the new Nike-designed, Fanatics-manufactured uniforms.

Sources disputed how productive the meeting was or how receptive the commissioner was to the players’ concerns, but the consensus was that the dialogue was appreciated.

Manfred also met with all 30 teams during the regular season last year, paying a visit to the visitors’ clubhouse when the Giants were in Milwaukee.

The black barrel of 34-inch, 31.5-ounce piece of wood flew through strike zone. But all it connected with was air.

“That wasn’t the idea,” Soler, cracking a smile, said through Spanish-language interpreter Erwin Higueros. “But the pitcher threw a fastball right down the middle and the bat just slipped out of my hands.”

The big slugger came out swinging in his Giants debut, but the preview of what’s to come, they hope, was what followed.

A few pitches later, Soler cracked a line-drive single into left field, recording a hit in his first exhibition at-bat with his new team. And when he stepped to the plate for his next at-bat, in the third inning, Wilmer Flores was standing on third base in a prime scoring opportunity for the club’s new RBI man.

Soler got another fastball — 98 mph — and didn’t miss this time, ripping a ground ball up the middle that snuck through the defense playing on the cut of the infield grass. Flores, who helped recruit Soler to San Francisco, trotted home.

It was the first time in three spring exhibitions the Giants had manufactured a run besides the four-spot they put up when down to their final out in the Cactus League opener.

The offense would eventually awaken, but the Giants (0-2-1) were left still searching for their first win of the exhibition schedule, falling to the Angels, 11-9.

“He’s a run producer,” said manager Bob Melvin. “Our situational hitting has not been good, and he goes up there with an approach not to just hit the ball out of the ballpark. … You watch him take batting practice. It’s not all about hitting homers. He knows how to get himself ready.”

A rude welcome

Potentially the Giants’ next pitching prospect to graduate to the majors, Mason Black got the nod in their third exhibition of the spring.

Immediately, Ehire Adrianza welcomed him to the big leagues.

The Angels shortstop unloaded on the first pitch out of Black’s hand, placing it on the berm beyond the left-field wall.

“It happens,” Black said. “I was just thinking, ‘First pitch, let’s just throw a fastball.’ It ended up middle-middle, and he kind of made me pay for it.”

The 24-year-old right-hander settled in for his second inning, retiring the side in order, with a little help from Logan Webb.

The staff ace, who’s growing into a clubhouse leader, approached Black on the bench between innings.

“He just say, ‘Hey, go out there and relax. You have more time than you think. Use all the time you need,’ ” Black recalled. “That kind of settled me down. I think that really helped me out. … I would say the first inning I wasn’t executing at as high of a level as I would have liked, but I was happy with the bounceback in the second inning. It’s a place to build on for the future.”

Luciano ‘few more days’ away

After being scratched from their spring opener, rookie shortstop Marco Luciano was supposed to make his debut Monday.

But the 22-year-old top prospect was again absent from the lineup, replaced by Tyler Fitzgerald, as he battles a nagging hamstring.

Melvin said that Luciano will need “a few more days” before he gets into game action. He attempted to run on it Sunday, “and it still wasn’t there,” Melvin said.

Potentially of more interest, on the day they brought veteran shortstop Nick Ahmed into camp, was Luciano getting in pregame work at second base.

“Shortstop’s his position,” Melvin reaffirmed afterward. “Guys tend to get different looks in the middle of the infield, regardless.”

Brandon Crawford and the St. Louis Cardinals came to an agreement Monday on a deal that will prolong the three-time All-Star’s professional career but also take him to a new organization — and a new spring training home — for the first time.

The deal, still pending a physical, has not been officially announced.

According to The Athletic, which first reported news of the agreement, Crawford, 37, is expected to serve as the backup to 21-year-old Masyn Winn.

The arrangement is not so different than the one for which Nick Ahmed signed up for with the Giants, finalizing a minor-league contract with an invite to spring training on Monday to back up and mentor 22-year-old rookie top prospect Marco Luciano. Other veteran shortstops to come off the board in recent days include Tim Anderson (Miami: one year, $5 million), Kiké Hernandez (Dodgers: one year, $4 million) and Amed Rosario (Tampa Bay: one year, $1.25 million).

Once the Giants brought in Ahmed, who like Crawford had spent his entire career with one team, the Diamondbacks, it all but assured there would be no reunion in San Francisco.

In his 13th and final season with the Giants, Crawford battled age and injuries, posting career worsts in most offensive categories, before ceding the shortstop position to Luciano in the ninth inning of the final game of the season, receiving a final standing ovation from the fans who watched him grow from a two-sport star at Foothill High School into a two-time World Series champion.

The Giants will see Crawford for the first time for the Rickwood Classic in June, when they will face the Cardinals for one game at Willie Mays’ Negro Leagues ballpark in Birmingham, Alabama, before continuing the three-game series at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals don’t visit Oracle Park until the final series of the season, over the last weekend of September.

After 10 years, primarily as Arizona’s everyday shortstop, Nick Ahmed was released last September, a month before the team clinched its first postseason berth since 2017, eventually making it all the way to the World Series, where the Diamondbacks were defeated by Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers.

Now, the newest addition to the San Francisco Giants’ spring clubhouse said Monday morning, he plans to use that as fuel.

“That was hard, honestly,” Ahmed said. “To be part of an organization for that long and help them grow and build and go through some lean years and get to the point where we’re good again and get let go at the end of the year, it was hard. Just being honest. Not something I enjoyed by any stretch of the imagination.

“But I’m excited to turn the page and be here and go beat the Diamondbacks now.”

The first hurdle for Ahmed will be making the Opening Day roster.

Brought into camp as a non-roster invitee on a minor-league deal that was made official Monday, the soon-to-be 34-year-old two-time Gold Glove winner fit the bill of what Farhan Zaidi had been shopping for all offseason as a veteran with an elite defensive profile to pair with top prospect Marco Luciano, who is expected to be the Opening Day shortstop.

If that sounds familiar, well, Brandon Crawford checks many the same boxes but from the left side of the plate and three years older. The agreement with Ahmed all but ending any chance of a reunion in San Francisco, Crawford’s market moved quickly and within hours had come to a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In Ahmed’s first foray into free agency, he said he prioritized San Francisco because of its pitching staff, whose ability to generate contact on the ground also made him all the more attractive to the Giants. Their ace, Logan Webb, led the league with a 62.1% ground-ball rate, and the staff as a whole generated ground balls on 48.7% of balls in play, also the highest mark in the majors.

“We’ve talked about from early in the offseason since I’ve been here: Our infield defense needed to be shored up some,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s had some injuries. He’s fully healthy now. Looks great physically. And he’s a guy that can really defend, and I think that’s what kind of the objective was there.”

When Ahmed was released last Sept. 9, he was batting .212 with a .560 OPS — 47% below league average — the worst marks of his career over a full season. The previous year, he played only 17 games after undergoing season-ending surgery on his right shoulder in June.

But Ahmed said he is fully healthy and has addressed some “bad habits” in his swing that developed the past two years, namely his approach against left-handed pitchers and keeping his weight on his back foot. Melvin also noted that Ahmed is only five years removed from a 19-homer, 82-RBI season in 2019.

“So he’s at times been able to do it all,” Melvin said. “I know the shoulder was an issue for him; he got it taken care of. It seems like he’s physically fit.”

Ahmed has a number of teammates new and old in the Giants’ clubhouse, including new lefty Robbie Ray, who pitched in front of him in both of Ahmed’s Gold Glove seasons in 2018 and 2019 and called him “maybe one of the most surehanded guys at shortstop that I’ve ever played with.”

“He’s an amazing defender,” Ray said. “He made plays that weren’t routine look routine, so he’s really a special talent.”

The quality that stuck out most to Ray, though? His lead-by-example work ethic, which could prove valuable for the rookie Luciano.

Before he was released last season, Ahmed said he took pride in mentoring the Diamondbacks’ young core, including future Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll.

“He’s a great veteran voice,” Ray said. “He’s a very hard worker. I think he’s a very good example to younger guys in the clubhouse to show them what it takes to be in this league for as long as he’s been. He’s one of the hardest-working guys. He puts in the work day in and day out.”

At the outset of camp, Melvin said he wanted Luciano to win the job.

His only competition, until now, has come in the form of Casey Schmitt and Tyler Fitzgerald, two less-heralded prospects, and Otto Lopez, who was designated for assignment by his original organization, the Toronto Blue Jays.

But the addition of Ahmed to the infield mix has less to do with Luciano than rounding out one of their most glaring roster needs. Having played all but two of his 856 career games in the field at shortstop, he won’t compete for a utility role, Melvin said, adding “shortstop’s what he’s done and he’s done it very well.”

It’s insurance, too, as Luciano deals with a tight hamstring and is still “a few more days” from making his spring debut. Ahmed, who said the only thing he hasn’t done this offseason is face live pitching, will take a few days to get acclimated before he’s inserted into the lineup.

“I don’t think Luci needs any pushing,” Melvin said. “It’s just about adding depth to the position. I think the most important thing was finding a guy that defended really well.”

Crawford among first cuts

To add another player, the Giants needed to create space in the cramped home clubhouse, where all 69 players in camp have lockers.

That meant the first round of cuts came Monday, with two injured pitchers the first to be reassigned to minor-league camp.

Most notable was Reggie Crawford, the club’s first-round pick in 2022 who has decided to exclusively pursue pitching. Dealing with a lat strain, however, Crawford wasn’t able to take part in the baseball drills during camp but still remained involved, often spotted chatting behind the batting cage or offering to assist the coaches.

“Really, truly, he could’ve stayed in the training room, done his work and so forth. But he wanted to get out in the field and be around the guys,” Melvin said. “I think anytime you have that kind of experience it’s helpful for you. … To be able to be around a new coaching staff, the players, everybody knows who he is and what he means to this organization.”

Left-handed reliever Thomas Szapucki, who had thoracic outlet surgery last year, was also reassigned to minor-league camp.