One of the top pitchers in the Red Sox farm system is 19-year-old Bryan Mata with High-A Salem.
Mata was named to Team World for the Future's Game in Washington, D.C. this past week and threw one inning. As always, being named to the game is the highest honor for a minor leaguer to receive.
Looking at his numbers — a 6-2 record with a 3.42 ERA — things look pretty good, but the thing that stands out is his 57 walks in 71 innings pitched. Over the past two seasons, he's had a total of 45 walks, so clearly something is off, but there may be good reason for that.
The right-hander is adjusting to his new body.
"You're talking about a guy growing into his body," Red Sox minor league pitching coordinator Ralph Treuel said. "His velocity, he's touching 96-97 [miles per hour], which we never saw that last year. That has spiked. He's a bigger kid, physically. He's every bit of 6-foot-5 and close to 230 pounds right now. He was not that last year. It's a transition and I have seen this happen with a lot of young high school, young Latin pitchers … He's been 19 years old all year in a really good league. The league, they aren't hitting him. They are hitting .226 off him."
Mata is a completely different pitcher than he's been in his first few years in the organization, so he's still adjusting and figuring things out with the bonus being more velocity. Being 19 years old, there's nothing wrong with that, especially when most of his pitching peers in the Carolina League are 21 and 22 years old.
Aside from Jay Groome, Mata may have the most promise of any of the young pitchers in the system and while it may be easy to look at the control problems and get concerned, realizing he's only 19 and still growing into his body makes that a lot easier to take.
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