PHOENIX -- The comparison is an easy one to make as you watch Luis Matos go through his day.
You see it in the effortless right-handed swing, which seems incapable of creating anything but line drives. You see it in the quick wrists, the follow through with his bat and the angles of his feet when he gets hold of one. You see it in the oversized sunglasses, the high socks and the thick silver chain bouncing around his neck as he chases down fly balls in center field.
You see it in the confidence, which is impossible to miss. While all of the players in minor league camp are in full uniform, Matos wears an additional short-sleeved layer over his No. 70 jersey. In a camp of 173 players, even members of the Giants front office often need to sneak a peak at the back of a jersey to identify a player. That's never necessary when Matos hits.
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And finally, the last part of the comparison: Matos is doing all of this as a 20-year-old, so there was an obvious answer when he was asked Sunday who he models his game after.
"Ronald Acuña," he said first, before adding Fernando Tatis Jr.
Acuña Jr. is 24 years old, Tatis only 23, and they both have proven to be franchise-altering talents. The Giants, on the other hand, had the oldest lineup in the Majors in 2021, but youth is on the way. Right near the front of the pack is Matos, who never looked like a teenager in his first full professional season.
Matos hit .313 with 15 homers, 35 doubles and 21 stolen bases last year and was named Most Valuable Player of Low-A West, becoming the first San Jose Giant to ever win a league MVP award. Along the way, Matos heard the comparisons to Acuña, who broke into the big leagues as a 20-year-old and might have won NL MVP honors last year had he stayed healthy. The Giants prefer another path, though.
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"I want him to be Luis Matos. I think he's 100 percent Luis Matos," said Hector Borg, the organization's coordinator of Latin American development. "He can be a special player and somebody else can say later, 'I want to be like Luis Matos.' He's a special player and he works hard and he respects everybody. His makeup is outstanding and he's a great teammate. I think that's what makes him special."
Borg met Matos when he was 15, and even then he could see the trait that carried Matos to such lofty heights last season. It's not just the homers, doubles and stolen bases that get Giants officials so excited. It's the fact that Matos piled up those numbers while striking out just 61 times.
He was the only hitter in the minors to bat .300 and strike out fewer than 70 times in 450-plus at-bats last season. In 702 professional at-bats thus far, all coming as a teenager, he has just 92 strikeouts.
"I saw that from the first day," Borg said. "I saw the same thing (back then) and now he's getting better."
Matos has the best contact skills in a system now full of high-upside hitters, but there is always another step to take, and when the Giants sent him home for the winter they asked him to work on being more selective. He doesn't swing and miss often, but the pitching will get tougher as he rises through the minors. He'll have to fully embrace a mantra that's being taught at every level of the organization: Wait for a pitch you can do damage on.
"When I'm more selective on my pitches I make more solid contact," Matos said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. "When I expand the zone I do make contact, but I don't do the same damage."
The next steps will take place in Eugene, where Matos will try and avoid the speed bump that surprised other top Giants prospects. Several of the organization's best young hitters struggled in the league last year, including Marco Luciano, one of just two Giants prospects -- along with Joey Bart -- rated higher than Matos by most outside evaluators.
Luciano is a few months older than Matos, reached High-A first, and came to minor league camp as a consensus top 20 prospect in all of baseball. Matos is ranked 73rd by Baseball America and 77th by MLB Pipeline, but some at Papago Park believe the gap between the two is not wide at all, which would be tremendous news for the Giants.
Those idols, Acuña and Tatis, play center field and shortstop. If Luciano and Matos hit their ceilings, the Giants could have both premium up-the-middle positions taken care of for years to come, albeit in different packages. Luciano is known for his prodigious power. Matos right now has the more well-rounded game. That is something that has always drawn him to Acuña and Tatis.
"They are complete ballplayers," Matos said. "That's how I would like to be."
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Matos said he would love to reach the big leagues around the same time as Luciano, but this spring they have been separated in daily workouts. Luciano is doing drills led by the Double-A staff, although the placements don't guarantee anything once rosters are set.
Matos has been part of group that includes fellow Venezuelan Aeverson Arteaga, a shortstop who is coming off his own eye-popping summer in rookie ball. The Giants signed Arteaga a year after bringing in Luciano, Matos and Jairo Pomares in what looks like one of the best international classes in recent memory. As young as the others are, Arteaga doesn't even turn 19 until later this month.
They are all rising talents in a game that is wholly embracing young stars, with Acuña helping to lead the way. Acuña's debut four years ago signaled the start of a new era in Atlanta, and the Giants hope to one day say the same thing about a player who brings a lot of the same attributes.
Or, maybe not.
"I've heard comparisons to Ronald Acuña, because I can hit home runs, I can run, I can throw," Matos said. "But the goal is to maybe one day be better than him."