Follow @PrepBaseballCA Follow @LesLukach Follow @hardy03bsblFollow @HankLoForte Follow @vinniealfino42

New Episode LIVE now! - At The Yard Podcast

VENTURA, CALIF. - The Uncommitted Spotlight Series continues as we wind down from a packed fall of Prep Baseball California events, scout baseball, and other opportunities to evaluate players we will be recognizing some of the top remaining uncommitted players around the state. We will be looking at players from the 2026 class and 2027 classes across the upcoming weeks/months. 

We invite you to get to know them through the eyes of our Prep Baseball California staff of scouts both through our in person looks at players and/or the data-backed numbers collected at our events with our partnered companies. TrackMan, Blast Motion, and VALD Performance provide comparable data to project and evaluate players. All of these systems come together to give a clear picture at what colleges will get when a players steps onto their campus.

Today, we put the spotlight on a talented 2026 player who is featured inside the Top 275 of our 2026 California rankings. We are looking at the SoCal based '26 OF Matthew Carta from Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, Calif.. Carta has been a strong performer across a variety of Prep Baseball California events going back to the 2023 SoCal Underclass Game and then at the 2025 Central California Preseason All State. As well, he has shown his skills at a strong level on the Prep Baseball tournaments circuit with appearances at the 2024 and 2025 West Coast Program Invite, 2023 West Coast World Series and the 2023 California Summer Championships.

Carta has been a two year starter on the varsity level for the Centurions of Saugus High School helping them to a pair of CIF-Southern Section playoff appearances. In 2025 he took a prominent spot in the middle of their lineup where his offensive profile showed at a high level over 29 games played with 103 plate appearances (92 official at bats). For the spring season of 2025 Carta slashed a strong .293/.369/.500 with his 27 hits being good for third on the team. Impressively over 50% of his hits went for extra bases as he is starting to tap into the impact in his bat consistently with a team leading 11 doubles, one triple and tied for second with two home runs on the year. His spot in the middle of the Saugus order provided him ample opportunities to produce runs which he capitalized on by driving in a team leading 25 runs for the year and came around to score 16 runs himself. Matthew drew 11 walks on the year, but with his aggressive swing path there has been some struggles at times with contact leading to 29 strikeouts (something he can continue to polish in the coming year ahead of college). He played solid defensive for the year in the OF where he suits a corner profile in LF or RF with a .968 fielding percentage on the year including 58 putouts and two outfield assists. 

The RH hitting Carta takes an aggressive swing with an approach/intent geared to damage in the air. He starts from a balanced base and employs a leg kick with his front knee loading back beyond his rear leg loading his weight into the rear hip while keeping his hands relatively quiet. Once he arrives to the launch position he takes a well connected turn with his lower half using the ground effectively as he sinks into his rear leg and the upper body drives through contact with an uphill geared path looking to loft the ball from line to line for impact. Carta uses his hips aggressively to rotate and generates intriguing present torque posting 21.8 Gs of rotational acceleration. The torque in his turn helps generate impressive present bat speed reaching 78.5 MPH while showing off explosive hand speeds at 26.3 MPH. The intent in his approach and swing operation with solid present feel for timing during batting practice produces loud batted ball data via Trackman including a max EV up to 98.9 MPH at the Central California Preseason All State batting practice with an average EV at 91.1 MPH. Matthew showed intriguing underlying batted ball data with an 83% sweet spot rate and 50% hard hit rate while reaching a max distance of 360' including a 83% fly ball/line drive rate.

Carta has started to fill out his intriguing frame which has him checking in at 6'4 202 lbs. (January of 2025) with room to add another 10-15 lbs. in the future. He is a sound athlete at present who ran a 7.4 second range 60 at the Central California Preseason All State, but moves with solid actions that show an ability to run a lower time as he keeps maturing which suits him to a corner OF profile defensively with an accurate arm from the OF which clocked 81 MPH in January 2025. 

The overall profile for Carta is carried by his intriguing RH hitting impact profile that has continued to trend up over his his career. Showing feel to elevate the baseball with authority from line to line during his JR season projects to further power development as he keeps maturing and continued development to his bat to ball/approach. With ability to play both OF corners and likely also first base with his size/athleticism to go with his offensive profile there is plenty to like for college programs on the hunt for impact/power profile bats in the 2026 class.

College coaches and fans be sure to click on Carta's profile to see full video and information.

MORE PREP BASEBALL NEWS