Giants minor league notes: What the Canha addition means for Matos originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Giants felt they had young replacements ready for all of the veterans they traded this week.
Marco Luciano, 22, will be the designated hitter now that Jorge Soler is gone. Alex Cobb‘s rotation spot will go to 22-year-old Hayden Birdsong. Luke Jackson already had lost innings to Randy Rodriguez and Sean Hjelle, meaning Spencer Bivens — who is 30, but also a rookie — will take the role Jackson had in recent weeks.
But they raised some eyebrows when they traded for 35-year-old Mark Canha, who will join the team on Friday in Cincinnati. In theory, a lot of the at-bats Canha gets in the outfield over the next two months could have gone to 22-year-old Luis Matos, who is back in Triple-A after essentially being put on ice following the Austin Slater trade.
Why not just go all-in on youth and see what Matos can do, too?
On Giants Talk, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said San Francisco still wanted to have a balance between youth and experience. He pointed out that the rotation has two rookies, but also three veterans. The hitters’ room is still led by Matt Chapman and Michael Conforto, and soon, Canha. The Rogers Twins set the tone in the bullpen.
“I think in every group it’s nice to have a blend of youth and experience and that’s what we kind of tried to keep in mind at this deadline,” Zaidi said. “Some of this is going to be about opening up opportunities for young players and if there’s the right fit, if a veteran who fits the roster and also just fits what we want to have in the clubhouse — and we have really good team chemistry right now — we’re going to go ahead and do that.”
The Giants already are taking somewhat of a risk by turning Soler’s at-bats over to a rookie. They have a rookie shortstop and a young center fielder, and Casey Schmitt and Brett Wisely will platoon at second base. Manager Bob Melvin is a patient man and has leaned on the youth, but he probably wouldn’t have loved the idea of chasing a playoff spot with the unproven Matos instead of Canha, a player he knows well from his Oakland days.
Matos was NL Player of the Week with a memorable stretch in May, but has just a .462 OPS at the big league level since, and is 4-for-28 in Triple-A since he was sent back down. There are adjustments to be made, and unlike with some others, they’ll happen in the minors. The at-bats that seemed to be there after the Slater trade…