Seuly

Matias

Matias, 24, has already spent the first six seasons of his minor league career with the Royals, and he’ll return to where he’s most familiar. He had a really rough season offensively at Double-A Northwest Arkansas in 2022, slashing a mere .225/.330/.424 with 16 homers, 62 RBI and six swipes in 414 plate appearances.

Yepez exploded onto fantasy managers’ radar screens after launching 27 round-trippers in 111 games between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis this season. He’s also gone deep seven times in just 19 games this fall. Here’s the full West Division lineup: Lars Nootbaar RF, Nick Gonzales 2B, Bryston Stott SS, Juan Yepez 1B, James Outman CF, Logan O’Hoppe C, Elijah Dunham LF, Seuly Matías DH, Ezequiel Duran 3B and Coleman Crow P.

He’s expected to miss a few weeks. Ranked as the team’s No. 17 prospect by MLB Pipline, the 22-year-old Matias was hitting just .146/.286/.244 with one homer through 49 plate appearances so far this season.

Matias also scored twice and drove in two runs. The 20-year-old showed tremendous power in the 2019 season, hitting 31 homers before a fluke thumb injury shut him down for the year. On top of that power, Matias is an above-average runner, although he hasn’t really shown that speed on the bases just yet. He’s also a strong defender with a cannon for an arm, which should allow him to move quickly through the system. There’s huge contact issues here, but Matias has tremendous fantasy potential. Expect him up around 2021.

The Royals farm system is among the worst in baseball, but they do have a potential impact bat in the former of Matias. The 19-year-old outfielder has easy plus power, and he also has above-average speed, which makes him a potential 20-plus steal player as well. He’ll need to show more patience at the plate to maximize his value, but the offensive upside here is very real. You probably won’t see him in Kansas City until 2021, however.

Matias has been crushing the ball for the Legends to start the season, and the homer gives the 19-year-old four on the season. He’s a tremendous athlete, and while the sample size is just four games, it appears the teenager is having that athleticism translate into production at an early age. With all due respect to first-round pick Nick Pratto, this just might be the best offensive prospect in the Kansas City system.

Matias apparently got his thumb caught in the cargo door of the team bus while loading his luggage. Freak injuries always seem to happen a handful of times per MLB season, and this one definitely falls into that category. The 19-year-old outfielder is hitting .231/.303/.550 with 31 homers in 94 games with Lexington.

Matias now has 29 homers on the season, and the double was the 12th of his 2018 campaign. The 19-year-old clearly has immense power, and as he gets more comfortable as a runner, his above-average speed should make him a double-digit steal threat. He’s also hitting just .216 and has struck out 118 times in 292 at-bats, so there’s some work to be done here. Still, you can’t help but be impressed with his power. It’s legit.

The homers give Matias 10 on the season, and it pushes his slugging percentage in the Sally League to .663. The 19-year-old has easy plus-plus power from the right side, and he also has above-average speed that should make him a stolen base threat as he improves his jumps. If he gives pitchers a reason to throw strikes (five walks with 38 strikeouts), he has a chance to be a middle of the order hitter in a few years.