Luis

Matos

Matos heads back to the minors to make room for top prospect Bryce Eldridge prior to Monday’s game against the Diamondbacks. The 23-year-old outfielder has batted .221 (38-for-172) with eight homers, 22 RBI and four steals across 57 games this season at the highest level.

Matos took Corbin Martin deep in the fifth inning, and added two more RBI with a two-run single in the first. He’s performed well in the month of August, and it’s worth noting that Matos is still just 23 until January. It’s understandable — and probably wise — to be skeptical, but there’s certainly talent in Matos’ right-handed bat.

San Francisco has decided to ostensibly swap Matos and Grant McCray after the latter went 2-for-20 in 10 games with the club over the last three weeks. Matos has homered five times in 40 games this season in the majors, but is batting just .167 during that span.

It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman and Willy Adames aren’t much for routine days off. The Giants are certainly committed to those three and probably Jung Hoo Lee, Heliot Ramos and Patrick Bailey as 2026 regulars, leaving openings at second, in right field and at DH. But the first two of those spots are currently occupied by younger players anyway in Casey Schmitt and Drew Gilbert. We wouldn’t expect much to change with the core group going forward. Marco Luciano, Luis Matos and maybe Wade Meckler could get looks between the outfield and the DH spot.

Trading Mike Yastrzemski and then not giving Matos a real shot is an odd choice. The Giants, though, will probably go with a platoon of Grant McCray and Jerar Encarnacion in right field for now. Matos, 23, has hit .167/.208/.351 in 120 major league plate appearances this season. He’s played less for the Giants this year and last year than he did as a 21-year-old rookie in 2023 (.250/.319/.342 in 253 PA).

Matos came on as a pinch-hitter for Mike Yastrzemski with a man on first and one out in the ninth inning with the Giants facing a 2-0 deficit. He then clobbered an 0-1 slider from Scott for a 424-foot (105.5 mph EV) two-run shot that tied the score and gave the Giants new life. They would come up empty in both the 10th and 11th innings though before ultimately falling. Matos finished the day 1-for-2 and wraps up the first half hitting a meager .172/.214/.387 with five homers and 12 RBI with the Giants.

Matos smacked a two-run ground rule double off of J.T. Ginn in the fifth inning that extended the Giants’ lead to 5-1. That would be his only hit in five at-bats on the night, but it played a key role in the victory. He has struggled mightily at the dish overall this season, slashing just .176/.222/.376 with four homers, nine RBI and a pair of stolen bases in his first 90 plate appearances with the Giants.

Matos gets the call to join San Francisco’s bench ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Diamondbaks with rookie Christian Koss heading to the injured list with a left hamstring strain.

It qualifies as a mild surprise that Matos is the corresponding move to get slugger Jerar Encarnacion back from the injured list. The decision implies that the club isn’t considering moving on from LaMonte Wade Jr. at first base quite yet and will utilize Encarnacion in more of a corner outfield capacity.

Even though it came in the fourth inning, the blast off Ryan Weathers is definitely Matos’s biggest hit of the season. He came into the day 1-for-30 with runners on base, and though that one hit was a two-run homer, it came in a 9-2 loss. He now has four homers and seven RBI in 76 plate appearances. The appearance today was Matos’s first in six days and just his second since May 19. Still just 23 years old, he could benefit from getting sent down to play regularly at some point.