Young SF Giants outfielder back on the chopping block after Harrison Bader signing

With news breaking on Monday that the SF Giants are signing center fielder Harrison Bader, Luis Matos has been put back on the chopping block. The young outfielder is going to have to fight for a spot on the team or risk being put on waivers.

The Bader addition was a necessary one for San Francisco. Entering the offseason, the most glaring hole in the lineup was in right field. After the Giants traded Mike Yastrzemski last offseason, none of the young options they tried out there grabbed hold of the position.

Luis Matos is back on the hot seat for SF Giants

The longer the Giants went without making a move in the outfield this offseason, the more it seemed like they might opt to let the young guys battle it out or perhaps even employ some sort of platoon with Matos and Drew Gilbert in right field.

Adding Bader likely means that Jung Hoo Lee will move to right field which means there will still be a battle amongst the younger outfielders but it will be for a bench role rather than a starting role.

Unfortunately for Matos, that may very well mean that he is is on thin ice. The young outfielder has shown flashes during his stints in the big leagues over the last three seasons that could lead one to believe he is capable of being a solid big league player, but the overall numbers and consistency just have not been there.

In his big league career thus far he has slashed a collective .231/.281/.369 with 15 home runs and 61 runs batted in. We have seen him get red-hot for a week on multiple occasions, but he has not been able to sustain that success.

Part of that has to do with not getting consistent opportunities, but he also has not fully taken advantage of the opportunities he's gotten which is why his future with the team was in doubt late last season.

As Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic wrote in his latest column: "The player most likely pushed off the roster with Monday’s signing would appear to be Luis Matos, who will be out of options this spring and cannot be sent to Triple-A Sacramento before passing through waivers."

Gilbert is likely to be Matos' biggest competition for a spot on the bench. Given the fact that Gilbert has proven he is defensively capable at all three outfield positions, he probably has a leg up in that competition right now.

Then there is also the fact that Gilbert played under new manager Tony Vitello at the University of Tennessee, although Vitello will probably grant the job to whoever performs better in spring training to avoid accusations of favoritism.

No matter what, the future of Luis Matos on the Giants is far from a sure thing after the Bader signing.