SEASON SUMMARY

Matos injured his shoulder in August of 2000 and missed the first four months of the 2001 campaign as well before appearing in 18 games for three minor league affiliates and finally being recalled by the Orioles in late August.  He appeared in 31 of the team's final 33 games, spending time at all three outfield positions, the bulk of it in center.

Matos' demonstrated skills are speed/baserunning (he has stolen as many as 43 bases in a minor league season and in 24 attempts in 104 big league games has been successful 20 times) and defense (there are few if any questions about his glove).  The question is whether he can hit at the big league level.

Matos is still quite young--he turned 23 in October--and will be entering his seventh season of pro ball in 2002.  Projecting to the big leagues from his minor league achievements, there's ostensibly little to be excited about.  Matos has never hit .300 at any minor league level for a stint exceeding 14 games.  He has only reached the .350 on base mark once--in his 43 games stretch with the Orioles' Rookie team in the Gulf Coast League at Sarasota in 1996.  He has never slugged as high as .440 at any minor league stop (again, exceeding 14 games).  There's a sense that Matos has almost always been playing at least one level higher in the system than he should have, a problem that has extended to many other Oriole farm hands of recent vintage.

Matos may finally be filling out a bit.  He hit a couple of home runs in just 67 minor league at-bats last year before being recalled and popping four in only 98 ABs with the Orioles.  In fact, in 165 pro at-bats in 2001, Matos managed a solid, if not remarkable, total of 20 extra base hits and drew an acceptable 16 walks.

But the STATS, Inc. Major League Projection for Matos in 2002 isn't encouraging at all--.230/.278/.327.  Obviously that won't cut it, and the Orioles have all but stated that they're not comfortable with opening the season with Matos as the likely center fielder.  But barring a significant free agent acquisition, which seems less and less likely every day, Matos will probably end up getting the chance to play himself into that role during spring training, if for no other reasons than his youth and defensive skills...and the lack of an obvious alternative. 

TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY NEXT YEAR, HE MUST:

1) convince the team to take a full-blown flyer on him.

2) step it up significantly offensively, in all phases of the game, from his minor league performance

3) hope the team doesn't sign a veteran center fielder

NOTES

Showed significant platoon signs in limited action--he was 2-23 (.087) against lefties, with no extra base hits and no walks...but slugged .507 (11 extra base hits) against left-handers in 75 ABs against right-handers.