For subscribersPublished Aug. 13, 2026at6:00am
The Giants have come a long way from Michael Tucker.
Tucker, for fans who weren’t around in the early 2000s or forgot about his Giants legacy, was the outfielder who was signed just so they could avoid making a first-round draft pick.
As loony as that sounds in 2026, it’s absolutely true. By signing Tucker on Dec. 7, 2003, the Giants intentionally forfeited their top pick in 2004. Had they waited one day and allowed for the Royals to nontender Tucker, they could have signed him and also maintained their No. 1 draft pick. They preferred to give Tucker a $1.5 million salary, about the amount they would have paid their first pick, a strange budgetary sign of the times.