Francisco Mattos:
Emilio Fernandez wasn't the only great centerfielder to emerge as Micheal Bruce's career wound down in the late '10s and early '20s. With the 4th overall selection in the 2019 draft, San Diego selected Francisco Mattos. After splitting his first season between AA, AAA, and the big leagues, Mattos played regularly for the Padres in 2020. Shockingly, he was traded in July of 2021 to Knoxville. He would spend the rest of his career in Knoxville, and what a career it was! His first All Star season came in 2023. A year later, he had a 37 game hitting streak, which remains a Knoxville record today. In 2025, he began a stretch of 4 consecutive All Star seasons. In 2027, Knoxville knocked down the dominant power of the Southeast Division in that era, Nashville, and made the postseason for the first time in 10 years. A strong postseason performance from Mattos helped the 79ers to their first World Series victory since 2004. In 2028, Knoxville returned to the World Series, and despite a tremendous effort from Mattos(1.271 OPS, 6 HR, and 26 RBI in the playoffs), the 79ers fell to the Dodgers in one of the greatest World Series of all time. The series went to seven games, and all but two of the games were decided by 2 or fewer runs.
Knoxville remained a strong team into the early '30s, reaching and losing the 2030 World Series. But as Mattos' career came to a close, so too did the success of the 79ers. Reaching 3,000 hits in 2036 was only a brief respite from a last place season for Knoxville. Likewise for Mattos' 500th homerun in 2037 as Knoxville sunk to the bottom of all of baseball, losing 103 games(a franchise worst at the time).
At the time of his retirement, Mattos ranked 5th in hits, 17th in homeruns, 11th in RBI, and 10th in runs scored. Today, he ranks 19th in hits.
Mattos' stats:
Code:
Career Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Teams
2019 31 107 21 3 1 5 9 14 5 33 2 1 .196 .232 .383 .615 SD
2020 153 531 145 15 5 16 70 67 27 142 17 3 .273 .308 .411 .719 SD
2021 153 596 181 30 2 22 71 85 28 141 14 4 .304 .335 .471 .806 SD KNO
2022 151 606 181 28 4 18 95 97 40 84 16 7 .299 .342 .447 .789 KNO
2023 144 566 172 31 2 19 86 96 49 83 31 6 .304 .359 .466 .826 KNO,AL
2024 154 623 200 29 3 28 95 105 45 104 24 8 .321 .367 .512 .879 KNO
2025 157 600 183 46 6 40 131 117 63 74 21 3 .305 .371 .602 .973 KNO,AL
2026 156 627 209 30 4 41 132 130 67 48 20 7 .333 .398 .590 .988 KNO,AL
2027 155 626 216 55 5 38 128 139 52 53 11 2 .345 .395 .631 1.026 KNO,AL
2028 154 620 173 39 4 38 120 121 47 18 6 2 .279 .330 .539 .869 KNO,AL
2029 153 612 182 31 2 31 110 95 49 43 12 5 .297 .349 .507 .856 KNO
2030 156 616 186 31 3 42 117 108 39 41 10 3 .302 .344 .567 .910 KNO
2031 146 569 205 29 5 45 123 132 54 31 16 3 .360 .416 .666 1.082 KNO,AL
2032 155 596 153 22 4 24 102 93 41 36 14 2 .257 .305 .428 .732 KNO
2033 157 635 191 32 2 25 102 122 42 28 18 2 .301 .344 .476 .820 KNO
2034 156 603 170 29 8 26 110 107 37 41 13 3 .282 .323 .486 .809 KNO
2035 129 495 141 16 2 19 78 71 21 29 7 3 .285 .314 .440 .754 KNO
2036 148 513 146 20 2 22 89 75 33 67 1 0 .285 .328 .460 .788 KNO
2037 75 217 71 7 1 8 33 26 11 36 0 0 .327 .360 .479 .839 KNO
2038 17 29 6 1 0 0 1 2 1 9 0 0 .207 .233 .241 .475 KNO
Total 2700 10387 3132 524 65 507 1802 1802 751 1141 253 64 .302 .349 .511 .860
Career Minor League Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2019, AA 125 517 147 16 2 25 87 78 29 125 17 3 .284 .320 .468 .788
2019, AAA 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 .333 .500 .333 .833
Career Postseason Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
2027 11 49 17 2 0 3 9 11 4 3 1 0 .347 .396 .571 .968
2028 14 58 23 6 1 6 26 14 3 2 1 2 .397 .426 .845 1.271
2030 12 39 4 3 0 0 1 4 7 3 1 0 .103 .239 .179 .419
2032 4 16 5 0 2 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 .313 .313 .563 .875
2033 6 25 7 0 0 1 5 4 2 2 1 0 .280 .333 .400 .733
Total 47 187 56 11 3 10 42 34 16 11 4 2 .299 .355 .551 .905
Player History
Drafted in 1st round, 4th overall pick, by San Diego in 2019...
Had first career hit on 8/28/2019, off Brent Lockett (PIT)...
Hit first career homerun on 9/2/2019, off Edwin White (HAR)...
Traded from San Diego to Knoxville on 7/14/2021 (Going to SD: P A. Gonzalez, LF J. Nedd. Going to KNO: CF F. Mattos)...
Had 5 hits with 5 RBI against Memphis on 9/21/2021...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/30/2023, hitting .419 with 4 HR, 11 RBI...
Was selected to the 2023 Allstar game...
Drove in 6 runs against Kansas City on 7/24/2023...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/4/2024, hitting .515 with 1 HR, 10 RBI...
Had 37-game hitting streak snapped on 9/7/2024...
Won Batter of the Month award on 5/1/2025, hitting .352 with 10 HR, 25 RBI...
Was selected to the 2025 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2026 Allstar game...
Drove in 6 runs against Washington on 7/20/2026...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/21/2026, hitting .462 with 3 HR, 11 RBI...
Had 24-game hitting streak snapped on 7/26/2026...
Won Batter of the Month award on 8/1/2026, hitting .417 with 13 HR, 31 RBI...
Had 5 hits with 3 RBI against Nashville on 4/4/2027...
Was selected to the 2027 Allstar game...
Won World Series with Knoxville in 2027...
Won Batter of the Month award on 5/1/2028, hitting .360 with 10 HR, 28 RBI...
Was selected to the 2028 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/29/2029, hitting .579 with 4 HR, 10 RBI...
Had 2000th career hit on 8/17/2030, off Rupert Lasa (WAS)...
Had 5 hits with 4 RBI against Atlanta on 9/19/2030...
Hit 3 homeruns against Atlanta, driving in 4 runs on 9/19/2030...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/28/2031, hitting .522 with 4 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 5/1/2031, hitting .394 with 13 HR, 34 RBI...
Injured on 6/11/2031 with a Inflamed Hip Muscle, out for one week...
Was selected to the 2031 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/21/2032, hitting .467 with 2 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 5/1/2032, hitting .373 with 8 HR, 29 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/2/2034, hitting .524 with 3 HR, 9 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Grand Rapids on 4/22/2035...
Injured on 5/20/2035 with a Herniated Disc Back, out for 4-5 weeks...
Had 5 hits with 6 RBI against Tucson on 5/17/2036...
Had 3000th career hit on 7/5/2036, off Mitchell Pullins (MEM)...
Had 500th career homerun on 4/9/2037, off Deangelo Xiques (NAS)...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/12/2037, hitting .579 with 1 HR, 6 RBI...
Released by Knoxville on 7/16/2038, refused assignment to minors...
Retired and inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2039.
Batting Leader Boards Appearances
AVG
2026 - .333 - 3rd
2027 - .345 - 3rd
2031 - .360 - 3rd
OBP
2026 - .398 - 9th
2031 - .416 - 6th
SLG
2025 - .602 - 3rd
2026 - .590 - 5th
2027 - .631 - 4th
2031 - .666 - 1st
OPS
2025 - .973 - 4th
2026 - .988 - 3rd
2027 - 1.026 - 4th
2031 - 1.082 - 1st
Hits
2022 - 181 - 10th
2023 - 172 - 9th
2024 - 200 - 3rd
2025 - 183 - 5th
2026 - 209 - 1st
2027 - 216 - 3rd
2029 - 182 - 10th
2031 - 205 - 7th
Doubles
2025 - 46 - 6th
2027 - 55 - 5th
Triples
2025 - 6 - 8th
2034 - 8 - 8th
Homeruns
2024 - 28 - 10th
2025 - 40 - 2nd
2026 - 41 - 3rd
2027 - 38 - 4th
2028 - 38 - 4th
2029 - 31 - 7th
2030 - 42 - 4th
2031 - 45 - 1st
RBI
2025 - 131 - 2nd
2026 - 132 - 2nd
2027 - 128 - 4th
2028 - 120 - 5th
2029 - 110 - 9th
2031 - 123 - 7th
Runs
2025 - 117 - 5th
2026 - 130 - 1st
2027 - 139 - 3rd
2028 - 121 - 4th
2031 - 132 - 3rd
2033 - 122 - 6th
SB
2023 - 31 - 9th
2033 - 18 - 9th