Matos Mania! Luis Goes Off in Reno

SF Giants Minor Lines, June 14-16, 2024

Photo Credit: Kevin Cunningham | Giant Futures

There are things in this world that defy rational explanation. There are definitely things in baseball that defy rational explanation.

Adding to the already interminably long list of baseball oddities, we now have this: June 15 will forevermore be known as “Tyler Fitzgerald Hits An Inside-the-Park Home Run Day.” Mark your calendars for June 15, 2025 to watch Fitz race around the bases again!

For a more important story that might defy belief — get in a time machine and go back in time two years to the time when Spencer Bivens was pitching for Gastonia in the Atlantic League and tell him he was barely 24 months away from a major league call up. Or for even bigger yucks, go back two years earlier to the point when he was toiling away in an Adult Rec league in Pennsylvania (Go, Lemont Ducks!), still believing he had the arm to make the long trek to the big leagues.

Now, the man who began his career in France can call himself a big leaguer. Incroyiblé!

Congratulations, Spencer! For the story in his own words (at least as far as he’d traveled it by last year), revisit this great conversation with Trey Wilson on the Funnville Nine:

HITTER of the WEEKEND: Luis Matos (Sac), 5 for 14, 3 HR, 2 2b, 3 R, 4 RBI, SB
PITCHER of the WEEKEND: Carson Ragsdale (Rich), 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K

Of course, as is always true, one player’s dream come true often coincides with bad news for somebody else. In this case, the guy who got the slammed door rather than an open window was Modesto native, Nick Avila who was released to make room for Bivens. It’s a slightly curious move, in that he was released rather than being DFA’d and put on waivers. Avila was on the injured list at the time of his release, which would seem to make it likely that they could sneak him through waivers and outright him back onto the Sacramento roster. Perhaps, the team instead agreed to re-sign him at a guaranteed rate. We shall see how that one plays out in the coming days.

Regardless, a huge congratulations goes out to the 29-year-old Bivens, the 23,233rd big leaguer in MLB history (not to mention to Gastonia, which, by MLB rule, gets paid a bonus for Bivens reaching the majors).