The Giants announced Wednesday that they’ve recalled outfielder Luis Matos and infielder David Villar from Triple-A Sacramento. They also formally placed outfielder Mitch Haniger on the 10-day injured list following last night’s forearm fracture and optioned righty Keaton Winn to Sacramento.
The 21-year-old Matos is being thrown right into the fire, starting in center field and batting second in his MLB debut against the Cardinals and lefty Jordan Montgomery. It’s a nice vote of confidence in the former top prospect, who has bounced back from a dismal 2022 season (.215/.280/.356, mostly in High-A) to post a massive .350/.415/.561 showing between Double-A and Triple-A. The right-handed-hitting Matos has decimated left-handed pitching in particular, batting .375/.474/.729 in 57 plate appearances.
Last year’s rough showing dinged Matos’ prospect standing a bit, as he dropped off various top-100 lists after entering the ’22 season as a consensus entrant on such rankings. Baseball America still ranked him fifth among Giants farmhands heading into the season, however, tabbing him as a potential everyday outfielder if he can iron out some of the inconsistency and passivity he showed while trying to refine his approach at the plate last year. At least thus far, Matos has done just that. He’s fanned just 20 times in 249 plate appearances (8%) and draw 24 walks (9.6%).
With Haniger facing an extended absence and Matos rapidly rebuilding his stock in the minors, the latter now looks like he’ll receive a legitimate audition for an everyday role with the team moving forward. Manager Gabe Kapler said today that Haniger might require surgery, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link), though even in that scenario he’d have a chance at returning this year.
Still, it doesn’t sound as though Haniger will return to the lineup in particularly short order, so San Francisco’s front office and coaching staff will be able to use the opportunity to gauge Matos’ MLB readiness (or lack thereof). If he hits the ground running, they’ll boast a solid outfield trio of Matos, Mike Yastrzemski and Michael Conforto, with Blake Sabol, Austin Slater, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Joc Pederson also on hand as options. In the event of further injuries and/or struggles from Matos, it’s feasible that outfield help could be an area of focus for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi heading into this year’s trade deadline. The Giants are six games out in the National League West but are also currently in possession of the third Wild Card spot in the NL standings.
Future optional assignments can always change a player’s free-agent and arbitration trajectories. For now, however, if Matos sticks in the big leagues he’d be arbitration-eligible after the 2026 season and under club control all the way through the 2029 campaign.
Matos is gonna have a bright future, Congrats to the giants and the fanbase for this day. Coming from a Dodgers fan I wish nothing but the best for the dude!
respect man, we’ve been long overdue for a young exciting player of Matos caliber to come up. Youth movement is finally here.
It’s really exciting to see all these young kids getting promoted so much this year.
Hey when will they finally call up Arson Judge? I heard he’s tearing it up at AAA right now.
How’s Aaron Judge? On the IL again? Better yet, how’s Rodon doing lmao
I think the link is wrong. Try baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=mat…
Link is to wrong Luis Matos
Mitch is made of glass
90 mph dead on his forearm bone. Strowoman would survive because she’s the woman of steel?
Really cool, I watched this kid bat leadoff in Tacoma earlier in the month, he was a man among boys. 4 hits including a smoked home run the opposite way. I figured it wouldn’t be long before he got the call!
5 HR in 6 games before his callup. All I can say is wow.
Pacific Coast league stats can be skewed as the teams play in some very Colorado like venues – Regardless, prospect seems like he could be ready to be a productive big league player- I hope Matos is the real deal & evolves as a higher Tier player.
Actually, it’s 6 HRs in 6 games. 5games were in Sacramento (elevation 30ft) and 1 was in Sugarland, Tx (sea level). His earlier HR was in Tacoma (elevation 400). So none of these were in “Colorado like venues). Much of the PCL is but half of his games were in Sacramento. Yes, PCL is a hitter league. No argument, but response like yours Franklin that seem applicable might not be with a little research. He was hitting .400. What skewed that number?
All I can say is:
Flaherty should be immediately be suspended by MLB for injuring a batter with a pitched ball. He should remain suspended until such time that Haniger is able to resume baseball activities at the MLB level at his normal level of capabilities.
It is time for justice for the teams that are victimized by the loss of players due to being hit by a pitched ball.
The Giants lose the services of a starting outfielder.
What loss to the Cardinals suffer??
Saying, “OOPS – S-O-R-R-Y, Well, it’s just part of the game”.
Just does not go far enough !!
I was watching the game & As a Giants fan I didn’t see where Flahertys pitch location was hyper aggressive.or intentional.
Hell, it was a check swing… Mitch was going to pull the trigger on it until he saw it running in on his hands.
It was breaking ball that ran in and down.- these guys have pitch in with specific pitches to specific hitters weaknesses…yes?
relax guy, it wasn’t intentional. In fact, Haniger started his swing. I do say EFF Flaherty for his drama he stirred with Wade but in no way was the Haniger HBP intentional.
@jackson 13 this is part of baseball always has been, pretty soon folks like you will require full pads and helmets for people playing badminton. It’s not like the player doesn’t get paid while on the IL.
Matos was playing through injuries for much of the 2022 season, which goes a long way to explain his down numbers. With full health and the refinements to his approach paying dividends, it’s exciting to see.
It’s incredibly hard to believe the Giants haven’t had an outfield prospect this good since… Chili Davis. So strange.