The Brewers announced that they have acquired outfielder Luis Matos from the Giants in exchange for cash considerations. San Francisco had designated Matos for assignment last week when setting their Opening Day roster. To open a 40-man spot for him, Milwaukee has designated left-hander Sammy Peralta for assignment. Matos is out of options, so the Brewers will also need to open an active roster spot for him when he reports to the team.
Milwaukee is buying low on a former top prospect. Matos was a fairly high profile international signing out of Venezuela and he performed well against lower-level pitching. Going into 2022, Baseball America ranked him the #73 prospect in all of baseball. In November of that year, the Giants added him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
He hasn’t been able to click in the majors. Over the past three seasons, the Giants sent him to the plate 593 times. His 14.2% strikeout rate was quite low but he also drew a walk at a subpar rate of 6.1%. He hit 15 home runs but his 231/.281/.369 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 80, putting him 20% below league average. He may have been held back by a .247 batting average on balls in play but his batted ball data wasn’t popping off the charts. His defensive metrics have been quite poor, though he’s been better in the corners than in center.
His minor league offense has been better in that time. In 823 minor league plate appearances over the past three years, he has 33 home runs and a .290/.354/.495 line. Even though most of those numbers were put up in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, wRC+ still considered him to have been 19% above league average in that time.
As he was shuttled between Triple-A and the minors, he exhausted his option years. That made it harder for the Giants to keep committing a roster spot to him. They preferred to use their bench spots to keep the power bat of Jerar Encarnación and the speed of Jared Oliva.
The Brewers will take a shot on him. They have recently gotten good results from a few guys that other clubs gave up on, with Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers being a couple of examples. Perhaps they can get a similar post-hype breakout from Matos. He has under two years of club control, so he can be retained through 2030 if that pans out. He will qualify for arbitration at the end of this year as a Super Two guy if he holds his spot all year.
For now, he’ll have to find some playing time in the outfield. For the moment, Milwaukee has Jackson Chourio, Steward Berroa and Akil Baddoo on the injured list. That leaves them with Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Brandon Lockridge and Blake Perkins, with Christian Yelich perhaps playing the field on occasion when he’s not the designated hitter. One of them could be optioned to the minors to open a spot for Matos. Perkins started the season on optional assignment and was recalled when Chourio got hurt, so perhaps he will be the move.
Matos is a righty bat and he has better numbers against southpaws, so perhaps he can carve out a short-side platoon role as Mitchell and Frelick are lefties. Matos has a .238/.302/.411 line against lefties in his big league career, compared to a .226/.267/.342 slash against righties.
Peralta, 28 in May, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels in October. He was optioned to Triple-A Nashville earlier this month and therefore hasn’t appeared in a big league game for the Brewers. He has 45 2/3 innings on his track record from the previous three seasons with a 5.12 earned run average, 17.3% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate and 40.8% ground ball rate.
The lefty tossed 70 2/3 Triple-A innings last year. His 4.33 ERA wasn’t especially impressive but that performance came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 24.1% strikeout rate, 4.8% walk rate and 45.5% ground ball rate were all decent figures. He still has an option remaining and could appeal to a club looking for some pitching depth. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Brewers could take a maximum of five days to explore trade talks.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Cash considerations on the move again.
It was fun when Benjamin caught lightning in a bottle. Now he can’t keep a roster spot.
I hope you’re joking
I’m guessing by the name this a troll and possibly the same one who over the weekend posted that all Baseball fans should be grateful for the Dodgers…
So does Blake Perkins go back to Nashville after that marvelous defensive work?
1. Luis Tiant
Milwaukee is a great spot for Matos.
He’ll do well there.
Luis Aparacio
Hello! McDombrowski!
Luis’s Castillo
Luis Quinones.
Kick some butt, Luis. ⚾️
He isn’t even the best Luis on the Giants…
He debuted in the majors all the way back in 2000 with the Orioles. Cool to see him still playing…
Luis Kills, he never dies.
Luis Robert jr.
Luis Gonzalez
and my favorite Luis Tiant!
Go gettem “To” Matos!
Lineup was looking very suspect against LHP with Chourio and Vaughn out, so happy they are throwing darts
This Giants fan wishes success to Matos. Maybe the change of scenery will finally spark him into some of his previous talent. He’s a really good teammate and was well liked. I hope he gets more playing time with the Brewers now. Good luck Luis.
I wish him success more as proof to the Giants that this was a dumb move.
Sadler: I don’t think it was dumb. Even if the Giants would have kept him he wasn’t going to play much. I don’t think any reserves played the whole series against the Yankees. I think Oliva pinch ran once. Maybe some reserves should have played. Couldn’t be any worse than the regular lineup did. 0-3 is a gut punch at home. Now we get to play the Padres in SD and they owned us in 2025.
In my opinion, it’s another player on the long list of ‘put an unproven, young guy on a major league roster only to fester on the bench’ … All teams are guilty of it and it’s dumb. He was out of options because he shouldn’t have been called up just to be a bench player.
mab51357, I see the logic in your post, and it’s not dumb if Matos is only a reserve player going forward. But it will be dumb if he becomes more than that. That may have been Sadler’s point. Entering his age 24 season, he’s still young enough to become a productive everyday player. In comparison, Oliva is 30, and Jerar 28. Chances are they aren’t going to be anymore than what they’ve shown, while Matos may be
Sadler: You mention a good point as far as bringing a “prospect” up to sit on the bench all week and throwing them in on a Sunday game at most. Your point is if you bring a prospect up they need playing time in the form of many AB’s. Like a large sample size before giving the player away. There have been many times over the last few years when watching other teams, I ask myself how these teams get so lucky with prospects. Seems like we see certain prospects playing full time and becoming really nice players. In turn that player plugs a hole and saves their teams from having to sign a free agent to plug the same hole. At this point I wonder why some teams are able to generate good solid players instead of other teams, Giants included that don’t usually get a new regular each year to plug in. An example is Eldridge when he does get called he’ll play regularly as a starter. But probably only him. Teams are developing good full time players because they are in the lineup getting AB’s. Sink or swim comes to mind. I think I’d like the Giants placing more sink or swim prospects into the lineup as they’re brought up. Jerar needs full time at bats to get comfortable. If he doesn’t produce we’ll know why. And I’ve wanted a set day to day lineup for years. Was never going to happen with all the players Zaidi brought in. Vitello is now doing that but he need to work some of the reserves in at times to stay sharp. Koss needs reps to stay sharp also.
Good luck “Toe” Matos!
Crazy how this team refuses to give a Gold Glove type OF in Perkins the opportunity to win a full time job other than part of ’24 due to injuries. Difficult to produce at bat when you only play once a week. Then again, he’s probably not one of “Pat’s guys.”
Yet, they’ll trot out strike out prone guys like Lockridge, the oft injured Mitchell and give them numerous chances to succeed. smh
Not even the greatest Luis Matos
I know you couldn’t resist the opportunity, but it’s a little early to declare a guy entering his age 24 season, a lesser player than another guy who’s career production ended at 19% below average. Especially since the age 24 kid has produced at 17% below league average so far.
Sure, but will this one go on to win a Nobel Prize?
Are we expanding the field beyond baseball?
Ironically, he also won a Fields Medal.
Not the best defensive outfielder. So probably a left fielder. His base running speed are ok. Arm not the best. Doesn’t walk. Not a high avg. Strikes out a lot. Has some pop for a smaller player in height and built. Can go gap to gap when on a roll. Not a starter. A bat off the bench who could potentially grow into a .230 hitter with extra base hit power. Probably in a platoon for left field/right field.
Hope he does well.
Jean/Sadler:I have been saying for couple years now that I really liked Matos’ swing. I also said in mid-March that I thought Matos would be on the opening day roster. I was a bit surprised he wasn’t. The reason Jerar is still here is because Eldridge was sent down and I understand why. I do like Oliva’s speed but he’s pretty much a specialist that doesn’tdo much else but I don’t think it should have been at Matos’ expense.
All that said, I’m just trying to make lemonade out of lemons with the last couple roster spots. I know who we have and who we don’t. I prefer to be optimistic about the roster we have. I’ll watch Matos, Luciano, Bart and Harrison closely with their new teams, but I’ll spend my time watching the players we do have and hope the roster works positively. And if one or two of our former “prospects” do well then we’ll have some answers about the organization going forward.
mab51357, I agree with everything you wrote. I feel the same way. But I responded to your post because you had framed it as Matos not being anything more than a bench guy. I don’t know if he will be, but with the tools he has, he has the ability to be more than that. I just wanted to point that out.
I thought Matos would get a final shot but in retrospect, Brennan was probably ahead of him as well. Left handed. Better mlb numbers, better, more consistent Spring. Having him as stashable had to be a factor.
I’m speaking in terms of upside. Brennan really hasn’t been better with the bat than Matos. In his largest chunk of playing time, 2023-24, Brennan averaged 126 games per season, and posted an 88 OPS+. Matos had a 95 OPS+ last season in sporadic playing time. Brennan is the better fielder and baserunner though.
Brennan is 4 years older than Matos. I see more offensive upside in Matos than Brennan, though Brennan can be a valuable utility guy. Again, Matos may never break out, but was never given regular playing time, like Brennan got, to see what he could do.
And I don’t understand why Gilbert was played over Matos last year. From 8/1 to season’s end, Gilbert in 39 games, posted a .190/.248/.350, line, and an OPS of .598. Matos, in 19 games over that same span, posted a .323/.368/.548, and an OPS of .916. Yet Gilbert could still be optioned in 2026.
I rarely think teams will get burned by released prospects, but Matos is different. I fully expect this one to come back and bite the G-men.
Cash being best deal showed how the league valued him.
Great situation for him in MIL, he’s free and cheap and due to injuries will get a chance—maybe he’ll figure it out
There we go. Off and running.
Congrats Tony.
With Chourio and Vaughn on the DL, the Brewers need a RH bat. Enter Matos. He doesn’t have the defensive chops or speed to be a long-term Brewer outfielder. He is most likely a band aid until Chourio and/or Vaughn returns.