Orioles utilityman Jorge Mateo is done for the year. Baltimore announced this evening that the speedster required a season-ending repair of the UCL in his left (non-throwing) elbow. He underwent an internal brace procedure with a repair of the flexor tendon.
Elbow ligament damage is far more common in pitchers. Mateo’s injury, of course, wasn’t sustained on a throw. While playing second base on a late July game against the Marlins, he ranged to his right to field a slow grounder up the middle. Mateo dove to try to make a backhand stop. At the same time, shortstop Gunnar Henderson moved to his left and went into a slide. Henderson rolled up on Mateo’s arm and bent his elbow back at an awkward angle.
The O’s initially announced the injury as an elbow subluxation. Mateo quickly landed on the 60-day injured list, already ruling him out into late September. He’d hoped to make a late-season return into the playoffs, but that won’t be possible. Manager Brandon Hyde expressed hope that the 29-year-old will be ready by next Opening Day (link via MLB.com’s Jake Rill).
Mateo is no longer an everyday player, but his speed and ability to play anywhere in the middle of the diamond would’ve made him a key bench piece going into the postseason. The O’s lost budding star third baseman Jordan Westburg to a hand fracture shortly after the Mateo injury; he’s out into September. Jackson Holliday is back in the majors as the everyday second baseman. The top prospect hasn’t struggled to the extent that he did during his first MLB look. Still, his .221/.280/.442 slash line since his most recent recall is below average. Westburg’s injury pushed Ramón Urías back into the lineup at the hot corner. Urías had an underwhelming start to the year but has somewhat quietly run a .273/.343/.511 line since the All-Star Break.
The O’s are carrying Emmanuel Rivera and Livan Soto as backup infielders. Neither has the speed that Mateo brings to the table. Mateo doesn’t hit for a high average or take many walks, but he has double-digit home run power and is a constant threat on the bases. He topped 30 steals in each of the last two years and was 13-15 this season. Baltimore just claimed outfielder Forrest Wall off waivers from Miami, perhaps with an eye towards carrying him as a designated pinch-runner in October.
Mateo is heading into his final season of arbitration eligibility. He is playing this year on a $2.7MM salary and should land in the $3-4MM range if Baltimore tenders him a contract for 2025. While Mateo has seemed like a trade or non-tender candidate for the past couple offseasons, the O’s have held him for more than three years.
Bummer, but was obvious when Baltimore made the Forrest Walls/Dillon Tate move earlier. Mateo is a spark plug and is a ton of fun to watch.
He also was an everyday player earlier in the year, getting the bulk of the 2B reps
Huh? He can be occasionally exciting and his speed impacts game, but after another good start he was rapidly settling into his usual 220 and he was mostly facing lefties. Bench player/ pinch runner – hardly the loss that matters on this team
Yes he was settling back to mediocrity, but don’t act like his defense and speed aren’t critical to the club’s success.
He’s definitely getting non-tendered this off-season, injury or not…
I don’t know. His arb salary shouldn’t be too bad and the trade of Ortiz/Norby really thinned out the extra infield depth. I think it’s a coin flip. His speed and D may be valuable enough to trade for a lotto ticket if we decide to move on & he’s healthy.
Next year hopefully have Mayo, Westburg and Holliday. Only need one utility infielder…either urias or Mateo. Stupid to keep both
I’d like to see Mayo/Holliday prove they’re better than Urias before dumping him at this point. We all obviously think that’ll be the case but if the WS is the goal then I don’t think it hurts to keep Urias for now. I don’t think we’d get much for him anyway.
Gunner’s D has been so bad that I’d like to see a good backup SS on the roster. Mateo plugs that.
positively_broad_st;
Not necessarily.
The FO and coaching staff love him and know how he can turn a game with his speed and/or D. Losing him has hurt the team — especially the pitchers — quite a bit.
If he’s non-tendered he’ll have a list of teams wanting him to come in to start at SS. The O’s can get something for him via trade if they don’t want him anymore.
I think both him and Urias stick. Those 2 got the majority of reps at their respected positions when the went 101 last year and had a winning record in 22. Prudent to keep them around. Yes? No? Maybe?
And Gunnar scares me our their at SS. IMO, the man’s gonna kill somebody or put himself on the DL. We need him for his hitting first. Stick him over at first which eliminates platooning there. Holliday to SS and Westburg at 3rd … 2 more positions that wouldn’t require platooning either.
Just some errors on plays most SS’s can’t get to. Look at how many errors Cal had his 2nd full year at SS. And his 1st, 3rd, 5th and 6th. He’s still at 1.5 dWAR for the year, which is pretty good.
That’s insane, moving one of the league’s best SS to 1B. Also, Holliday is poor defensively at 2B – and you want his noodle arm at SS. No way!
good point, Samuel. I can see Urias (despite his recent hot bat) being packaged up with other assets (minor league talent, international $ and/or a comp pick) to acquire an arm.
Mateo gives them a dimension with his speed that adds a wrinkle that the Os will need more if they move on from Mullins. I know that it’s not his throwing arm but you’d think that a UCL rehab would affect his glovework and bat as well.
A big shake up could happen where both Mullins and Mountcastle are dealt off and Santander gets a massive overpay from another club that loses out on Soto. Add in that Burnes is likely (short of some strong commitment to a payroll jump from Rubenstein) off to greener pastures as well… that’s a lot of veteran leadership off Baltimore’s team in the off-season.
And with that, Mateo has Khris Davis style consistency with 3 straight years of a .267 OBP.
You can’t steal first base.
On this site baseball is played with numbers on a spreadsheet. The objective is to figure out how much
salary the player will be paid in his next contract. Many readers are concerned with this.
In MLB it’s played on a field with players. Momentum changes count. Fundamental baseball counts. Baseball
IQ (good and bad) counts. There are no numbers for
those things. When the numbers are wrong we read that
the player was “lucky” or “unlucky”. Uh-Huh.
Most fans that follow a team, go to games or watch them on a media device, do so to see which team wins.
Watching games is fun.
Playing baseball on a field is fun.
Shut up, dude.
Well said Samuel. Keep bringing it!
Good for you.
Remember you’re supposed to do it every day.
use soap and sing happy birthday twice. don’t forget the backs of your hands too.
It’s the ears that people forget. Wash your dang ears people.
people don’t use their ears much, I think maybe they ought to wash their mouths out for all the vitriol that is slung about. btw, you kids get off my lawn!
Holliday – 20 year old rookie – is “below average” with a .280 OBP in this stint.
Mateo’s OBP is .267 for the third straight season. He’s also 29. We’ve seen peak Mateo. Its a pretty low peak.
Urias hits better, is just as defensively versatile and skilled. Mateo’s defensive numbers aren’t that great., not since 2022.
Is there a little bit of Derek Jeter syndrome going on here? Or Corey Patterson for Orioles fans? Meaning a really athletic guy whose actual baseball skills are overestimated because he “looks good” (in Jeter’s case, HOF offensive #’s plus 20 years of below average defensive SS play).
I’d say non tender but the Orioles like holding onto these guys and making the degree of difficulty higher on themselves.