We’re still waiting for the 2020 MLB season to start in July, but we have some recent baseball news on Tuesday. Infielder Jorge Mateo, traded by Oakland A, to the San Diego Padres, reports Jeff Passan from ESPN.
The A’s are given to a player who will be named later in the deal. The train is currently granting a seat on their 40-man roster and in their 60-man player pool, although anyone they receive as a PTBNL must join the pool (and possibly the roster, depending on who it is) .
Oakland first acquired Mateo from the Yankees in 2017 when trading with Sonny Gray. He has been included in the national top 100 lists in the past due to his explosive raw tools, including the speed of the Elite 80, but his inventory has declined in recent years as he struggled to get this talent into production in the field to implement. Last winter, Athletics Nation placed him 9th on our Community Prospect List, down three places from the previous year.
After Mateo’s bat appeared in the A’s farm system at the end of 2017, he fell silent in Triple-A. In 2018, the team’s partner was in extremely pitcher-friendly Nashville, and in 2019 they were in extremely club-friendly Las Vegas, and both times he posted below-average headlines. His total numbers from the last two seasons (in 1,076 record appearances):
Mateo, 2018-19 AAA: .261 / .306 / .433, 80 wRC +, 5.4% BB, 26.4% Ks
These numbers include 22 Homer and 30 Triple as well as 49 steals in 70 attempts (70% success, which is low). In his honor, however, his defense at shortstop is considered at least solid and maybe even better, which adds to its value.
We have to wait to find out what the A’s get in return for their high-risk, high-risk prospect. SF Chronicle’s Susan Slusser notes the following about why they might choose to trade for a PTBNL: “One reason to hurry up and do PTBNL is to prevent Mateo from going to Oakland and then one SD must go week or two or whatever the timeline would have been. A considerate gesture. “
This is the second trade the A’s have made with San Diego since the end of last season. In December they sent the second baseman Jurickson Profar to the Padres in return for the catcher Austin Allen and outfield prospect Buddy Reed.
analysis
This trade may not come as a big surprise to many in the AN community, as one of the team’s most important storylines in the off-season was the Infield Logjam. There were three young prospects fighting for places on the opening day list, and none of them could be sent to the minors – Mateo and Franklin Barreto no longer have options, and Vimael Machin is a rule 5 draft pick, all of them the MLB must stay season.
Even with the expanded 30-man roster at the beginning of this season, there wouldn’t be enough play time for everyone. There had to be something, and Oakland is now making the call while they have leverage instead of waiting until it’s too late to lose one of these players for nothing.
Mateo is still an enticing prospect, but he had no clear road to play in Oakland and was just 25 years old. The clock is at its prime and now he can continue to develop with a club in San Diego trying to build his next competing roster.
