The Giants are planning to designate outfielder Luis Matos for assignment, reports Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle. She adds that minor league signee Jared Oliva is expected to break camp in a bench role, so he’ll take Matos’ spot on the active and 40-man rosters.
Matos is out of minor league options. Formerly one of the organization’s top position player prospects, he was one of the most intriguing players fighting to hold his 40-man spot this spring. The Giants gave him a look long in camp, as he led the team with 23 games and 55 plate appearances.
After a quick start, Matos’ bat cooled in the middle of March. He finished the spring with a .260/.327/.440 line with two home runs. Matos only struck out three times but also took just one walk, as his on-base percentage was propped up by getting plunked by four pitches.
That aggressiveness has undercut Matos’ production in meaningful games. He’s a .231/.281/.369 hitter over parts of three MLB seasons. Matos has taken just under 600 plate appearances, the rough equivalent to one full season of playing time. He has hit 15 homers with strong contact rates but has worked walks at a modest 6.1% clip.
The Giants can wait until tomorrow morning to officially designate Matos for assignment. They’ll then have five days to try to trade him. If nothing comes together, they’d need to place him on waivers. There’s a decent chance he’ll be claimed, as he’s a 24-year-old former notable prospect who owns a .287/.345/.505 line over three Triple-A seasons. If another team acquires him via trade or waivers, they’d need to carry him on the big league roster.
Matos’ exclusion means the Giants will probably carry Jerar Encarnacion. He’s also an out-of-options outfielder who fits best in a corner or at designated hitter. He can get regular playing time at DH with Bryce Eldridge opening the season in the minors. San Francisco optioned depth outfielders Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert to Triple-A Sacramento this evening.
Rule 5 pick Daniel Susac is expected to win the backup catcher job. Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss seem ticketed for utility infield roles. That’ll very likely leave Oliva as a fifth outfielder and backup center fielder behind Harrison Bader. Assuming he’s officially selected onto the roster tomorrow, it’ll be his first MLB work in five years.
Oliva played in 26 big league games with the Pirates between 2020-21. He has bounced around the upper minors for the past few seasons without returning to the big league level. Oliva had a league average .252/.335/.413 batting line with 57 stolen bases in Triple-A with the Milwaukee organization last year. He signed a minor league deal with San Francisco over the winter and seized a job with his continued aggressiveness on the bases.
The righty-hitting outfielder stole 14 bags in 15 attempts. His .375 average over 20 games is unlikely to be a precursor to much of an impact at the plate, but the Giants are opting for more speed and defense in the final bench spot than Matos would have provided.
Mildly surprising that they didn’t try to keep him on the Opening Day roster and waive him in a few days.
But Jerar Encarnación (also out of options) fits the bench better because he can also play first base and has tantalizing power off the bench. And Jared Oliva won’t be “wasted” getting sparse at bats off the bench, because his speed is something the Giants roster sorely lacks. His ability to pinch run alone makes him more novel than Matos, who’s been sort of a “master of none” in his time with the Giants.
I would love the unlikely event of Matos clearing waivers and getting another shot in San Francisco, but hopefully he gets some playing time wherever he ends up
Given his young age and room to grow, I think he’ll likely get claimed.
He will.
I don’t think Encarnación has any defensive value.
Oliva will be great off our bench and fun to watch, it will be great to have a true base stealing threat. I was just hoping for Matos over Encarnacion.
Not many Giants fans are keen of AAAA player Jerar Encarnarcion, who always seems to find his way to the IL. He’s also slow as molasses.
I’m keen for him. Needs a decent crack at it. Last year’s hand injury was extremely untimely.
That sucks. Just another failed development by this org post-3in5 era.
This is EXACTLY what Buster and the Giants should do. Oliva is perfect for the Giants and obviously the Giants couldn’t get what they wanted for Luis.
Luis just couldn’t find consistency. Had his chances. Move forward.
I’ve been getting Jared Oliva confused with Will Craig for some reason the guy who never lived down that play against the Cubs. I guess it makes sense considering as of now both of them only played in the bigs for the Pirates from 2020-21.
White Sox should check in on this guy.
After losing Bart and Luciano I’m pretty numb to this one.
Matos is a fine player but he just couldn’t find it in SF. With the Marlins signing Austin Slater that eliminates one of his landing spots. KC, MIN, CHW or the Rockies would be great places for Luis.
Wishing him nothing but the best!
Could possibly land in Cleveland as well.
Matos went ice cold the last 2 weeks of ST. Bummer, I was really rooting for him. Thing with Oliva is they can DFA him at any time and there’s a decent chance he’ll pass through waivers. I’m not sure if he has options left. He hasn’t played in the bigs since 2021. Nice ST though, good for him.
I swear I would get so confused between this guy, Heliot Ramos, Marco Luciano and Mauricio Dubon. Ramos is the good one who made it out.
Ramos barely made it out, he was almost to this point a couple of years ago. And with his defensive shortcomings and tremendously long cold spells, he may yet be a roster casualty in a couple of years. Hopefully, he continues to improve, both offensively and defensively, and is the starting left fielder for years to come.
Fans were writing Ramos off. Not sure the org ever did.
Matos didn’t get the shot that Ramos did. Ramos had a 32 OPS+ over his ages 22 and 23 seasons. Age 24 is when he broke out. Matos had an 81 OPS+ over his ages 22 and 23 seasons.
The comparison isn’t a good one since Ramos had played only 34 games, while Matos played 102. So look at the MiL numbers:
Ramos: .768 OPS at AAA, and a .789 OPS MiL total.
Matos: .849 OPS at AAA, and an .828 OPS MiL total.
Yet Ramos was kept for his age 24 season, while Matos won’t get a chance to see what he could do in his age 24 season. It just shows that teams look at more than numbers.
Wishing Matos best of luck on his next baseball adventure. I can see him getting lots of runway, on a team like the Royals, Twins or Angels. Even the Blue Jays might be able to use him on the bench.
Oliva had a great spring, and the Giants definitely need some more speed on the base paths. I salute SF being open to making changes, whether it’s demoting the mediocre Spencer Bivens from the bullpen, or giving Oliva a shot.
Bivens might well be mediocre in talent, but he is well above average in terms of wringing every drop of it out, every single time. Don’t pick a fight with the dude. He is all guts. 2 years as a Giant, 130 innings, 3.7 era. He has earnt the right to be going nowhere. Respect.
I’m glad Heliot Ramos finally broke out and almost lived up to the hype there had been for him. The others just never looked more than AAA players once they were given a shot.
The Giants should’ve packaged Matos and Luciano for a legitimate veteran three years ago. Throw in Whisenhunt, and they could’ve gotten a cornerstone player.
What a gift, having hindsight.
The Angel’s love other teams garbage