Giants minor league notes: What the Canha addition means for Matos

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 never materialized, and now Canha is here to play the corner outfield spots against lefties.

“We obviously didn’t have everyday at-bats for (Matos) and it’s just tough for a young player to get over the hump,” Zaidi said. “We’ve seen it happen with Tyler (Fitzgerald) and Heliot (Ramos), but you’re not going to bat 1.000. Sometimes guys are going to struggle and need to go back down and get at-bats and maybe you get them another opportunity.

“I still think we view him as a guy who could help us, who could impact us this year if the opportunity presents itself, as it did with those other guys unexpectedly. For now, I think it’s the right thing for him to just get at-bats.”

The New Guys

Deadline day was mostly about dumping salaries and opening spots for some young players, but the Giants did also get a couple of prospects back.

Sabin Ceballos, acquired in the Soler deal, joined High-A Eugene on Wednesday. It was a cool assignment for a third baseman who was drafted out of Oregon last year.

The Giants liked Ceballos heading into last year’s draft but the Atlanta Braves took him in the third round. Ceballos has a .263/.357/.370 slash line this season and hit the ground running in his Emeralds debut, collecting a homer and two doubles.

“We really like the bat and we drafted a few other college guys in that draft last year that he’s going to have a chance to develop with,” Zaidi said.

In exchange for Cobb, the Giants got left-hander Jacob Bresnahan, who has a 3.00 ERA in 15 professional starts with 69 strikeouts in 54 innings. The 19-year-old had just been promoted from the Arizona Complex League so he seems likely to join Low-A San Jose.

“He throws a ton of strikes, has a good fastball and has some projection left,” Zaidi said.

Next In Line

Who else could be coming up from Triple-A in the second half?

Zaidi talked up 26-year-old outfielder Jerar Encarnacion earlier this week, and a source confirmed The Athletic’s report that the slugger will join the Giants in Cincinnati. Encarnacion was an outfielder in a previous big league stint with the Miami Marlins but has started to play some first base. He would seem to be in line for the Wilmer Flores-David Villar role.

“Our hitting group (in Sacramento) has done great work with him,” Zaidi said on Tuesday. “He’s got tremendous raw power and he’s just got juice to all fields. His approach has improved.”

Right-hander Landen Roupp is throwing the ball well and Zaidi said he “could be the sort of first line of defense for our rotation.”

Lefty Carson Whisenhunt is on the Triple-A IL with a foot injury but has resumed throwing off a mound and is ramping back up. Fellow lefty Reggie Crawford still is sidelined by a sore shoulder, although Zaidi said he has a chance to return before the Triple-A season is up. Given the injuries, both are long shots to debut in the majors this season.

The Giants also are keeping an eye on outfielder Grant McCray, who has a .769 OPS since a promotion to Triple-A. At the deadline, they looked into adding a true center fielder who could move Ramos back to a corner. It’s possible McCray, an excellent defender, gets a chance to be that guy at some point.

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