Recently acquired infielder Jorge Mateo tested positive for COVID-19 at intake testing, Padres manager Jayce Tingler revealed to reporters in a Zoom call today (Twitter link via Dennis Lin of The Athletic). He’s been dealing with mild symptoms, including loss of smell and taste. Mateo, acquired from the Athletics last week in exchange for a player to be named later, has not been to Petco Park and has been isolating since his test result. Once he tests negative on two occasions, at least 24 hours apart, he’ll be cleared to join his new club.
It’s an unfortunate start to Mateo’s tenure with the Padres, though it’s encouraging to hear Tingler relay that the 25-year-old is already beginning to feel a bit better. If he’s able to make a full recovery in time for the season opener, Mateo is likely to land on the Padres’ Opening Day roster. He’s out of minor league options and, if healthy, can’t be sent down to the team’s alternative training site without being exposed to waivers.
Mateo’s trade came before intake testing had begun, so there’s no way the A’s could’ve been reasonably expected to know about it (if he was even positive at the time of the deal), but the trade nevertheless underscores the importance of prompt turnaround time on testing. Delays have been prominent this week, even as MLB has sought to downplay them, and one can only imagine the complications that would arise were a player to test positive in-season immediately after being moved to a new club. Trade volume in general could be down this year given the unprecedented circumstances under which front offices are operating, but having as close to a real-time indicator of a player’s health as possible will be imperative for transactions to be allowed.
That’s not to sound callous; minimizing health risks for all players, coaches, staff and their families is of course the primary reason that tests need to be processed in expeditious fashion. But if roster movement is to be allowed, as is currently planned, the types of delays we’ve seen this week will need to be smoothed out in order to provide for the orderly execution of the season.
Hopefully all these guys recover quickly. Meanwhile down here in Texas, Joey Gallo has had two positive and two negative tests in the past 10 days. Posdibly calls into question accuracy of testing.
if they have an excess of tests so as to allow for them to be administered every few days, perhaps they should have a previously infected player take 3 tests in a day and then take the consensus as the correct condition.
Everyone should be allowed tests based on a bi monthly round robin Super Tuesday selection brought to you by the good people at State Farm
Possibly? Very likely.
Wishing Jorge Mateo a safe recovery
He could do some killer dares with loss of taste and smell. “Would you eat this cat poo for a steak?”
Spoken like a man with previous experience.
Nice welcome present
Wait.
What just happened? Ok…here goes again.
Mateo was a pretty exciting prospect for the Yanks at one time. In 2015 his 82 stolen bases led all MLB & MiLB.
It appears his totals are nowhere near that level since.
Huh.
Better competition? Injuries? Anyone know what that’s all about?
82 SB is a hard standard to match. speed is probably still there but maybe he needs a better baserunning coach.
Yeah.
I mean he’s 25. I find it hard to believe that he’s “slowing down”, or whatever. I get 82 is quite a pace. But, the SB totals are now in the 20’s. Huge drop off.
Hadn’t thought about coaching. Again, the drop off is just really significant.
Probably was just told to steal less. Why risk an out when the PCL, the most hitter friendly pro baseball league, had 43 batters with 20+ home runs, and 4 of those guys on your own team?
He was another overhype prospect by Cashman. Man for a “good GM” he can’t develop talent. Cano,Judge in 23 years is not good and considering how 96-00 team was built by Gene he has only one championship to his name which was bought by George
@mlb1125 aka “pirate guy”
I thought about that, too. I did. But…man 50+ steals less is like… man; a LOT.
Uh?
@johnnyetc
Uh.
You covered a lot of ground with that post. Too much for a regular sized response.
What I’ll go with is; man…Cashman is a good GM, man.
His power has gone up. I think he’s been changing his approach as a player. SBs are exciting as someone who grew up watching Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines. Math now says you need a 67%+ success rate to help your team score runs. Mateo could easily top that with his speed but is it worth the injury risk if he can learn to hit more HRs? The same logic applies to power guys who don’t try to hit singles on a defensive shift.
Sweeet.
A Covid thread. & we’re actually talking baseball instead. Hat tip, lads.
I, too, grew up with those players. So I definitely remember when the SB was a weapon. I’m not challenging you, @eastsider. But, I thought the percentage was actually higher…like 72%.
Either way, I get it.
However.
I look at the Astros* and they swipe 100+ bags/year. I get TTO stuff but as one poster’s name says: speed doesn’t slump.
Uh?
@DBF It really depends on who you ask. I just took that figure from Bill James and even he says that the break-even SB rate fluctuates every season depending on its offensive environment. I believe 72% is what the MLB success rate is for the past few years.
You don’t try to turn a speed guy into a power guy. He can hit more home runs, sure, but he will never hit like the Judges or Stantons. What he can give you is 50 extra bases that are stolen. That is like an extra 12 or 13 home runs or an extra 25 doubles. That has value. Any single can become a double. Singles could automatically get you a man into scoring position. That has huge value.
I doubt those percentages take into account the disruption that an elite base stealer can have on pitchers and catchers (please correct me if I’m wrong). Walks and pitch counts (and probably passed balls and wild pitches) go up as well.
Base stealing is a lost art. I guess proving once again that “Chicks dig the long ball”.
@lowereastsider
Oh, man, yeah. I feel like I should have figured out that it’s probably not a set value year to year. &, yeah, not sure where I pulled “72%” from.
Certainly don’t have a link.
I miss teams running.
@javia & @aias bring up some good points in defense of the steal. Seems like a few of us miss that style.
Thanks again, fellas.
Hope you guys all have great days today, serious.
Coaching alone can’t explain that. Look at the rest of his game. Why is he so expendable? Does he have an attitude problem? Did he peak in the minors?
@lowereastsider …
SABR-geeks hate stolen bases almost as much as they hate bunts.
He will be on the roster. I think he will be a late inning replacement. Glad he is starting to feel better. Hope to have him and Pham for the opener
He’ll score from 2nd base in the 10th inning on all season long.
Right. How’s he going to get on second?
Read the new rules extra innings you automatically place a player on 2B with no out, speed makes a big difference in winning games. You want a speedster out there.
Considering he’s out of options he was going to have to be on the roster no matter what otherwise the PTBNL was just thrown away.
I think it’s more of an issue now of whether he’ll be prepared by then if he misses the majority of the summer training, but expanded man rosters at the beginning should give them some cushion to slowly break him in even over the first few weeks.
I do wonder with the COVID injury list rules if they can hold him out to rehab if he’s not fully up to speed yet or if it’s once he’s no longer symptomatic and has the negative tests then he’ll need to be reinstated to the active roster.
If he is not fully recovered when the roster is down to 26 players he;’ll be released