There has never been a player from Uganda to make it to the big leagues, though there is a growing baseball presence in the African nation. The Dodgers signed two Ugandan players in 2022, Ben Serunkuma and Umar Male, and since then the Pirates have inked two more, most recently Armstrong Muhoozi and Matoma, who received $20,000 in January 2023. Matoma got his feet wet in the Dominican Summer League that summer but really jumped on radars when news of his arm strength spread and he put up outstanding numbers, albeit in a small sample, in the Florida Complex League.
Matoma may only be a six-footer, but he has a super-fast arm and tons of arm strength. He's touched triple-digits with his fastball and routinely is in the 97-98 mph range, though he does tend to fatigue pretty quickly. His 87-88 mph gyro-like slider could be a true out pitch in time, one that already misses a good amount of bats, and when he can keep his heater at the high end of his range, there's good velocity separation there. He has an upper-80s splitter, but it's a distant third pitch that doesn't kill enough spin.
Considering that Matoma has played so little baseball, he's done an impressive job throwing strikes consistently. He has a reliever-like mindset, with a slow heartbeat, but the Pirates don't want to limit what he could become. He showed up this spring more physical with much more muscle on his frame, which could help him maintain his stuff as he takes his next step.
