Everyone wants to know when Luis Matos will join the Giants’ MLB roster.
The team’s seventh-ranked prospect has been absolutely tearing up Triple-A ball, but remains in Sacramento following a nine-game stretch in which he went 20-for-44 at the plate with 3 home runs, 11 RBI and 32 total bases.
Simply put, he’s dominating.
So when is he coming up, and what goes into the Giants’ process in deciding when he’ll make his MLB debut? Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic joined KNBR to try and answer that question.
Baggarly said Matos’ plate discipline has improved and that “he’s doing all he can,” to get called up, having batted .412 in the month of June.
It may just be a situation of waiting until there’s an injury. But Matos’ inclusion on the 40-man roster makes it easier to call him up:
He’s on the 40 man roster. So he’s easily called up any time that they need an outfielder and we know that Bryce Johnson may be ahead of him. He’s the guy who’s gone up and down.
But don’t forget, you can only option a guy up and down five times in the season now. So maybe they use Bryce Johnson a couple of times. He’s already been optioned a couple times. He gets a little closer to that limit.
Maybe they’ll not want to use a fourth or fifth one on him before we get to August or something and so then well, okay, let’s sprinkle it around. Let’s give Matos a turn when we need a little bit of coverage out there. That may be one of the considerations that gets him into the big leagues a little bit quicker too.
As it stands, the Giants are fairly well stocked in the outfield with the likes of Mike Yastrzemski, Michael Conforto, Mitch Haniger, Austin Slater and even Joc Pederson and Lamonte Wade Jr. when needed. Until something changes in that mix, Matos is fighting an uphill battle despite his torrid streak.
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