Jorge Mateo

Orioles Acquire Alex Jackson From Yankees

By Nick Deeds | July 6, 2025 at 9:23am CDT

9:23am: The Orioles have announced that they’ve selected Jackson’s contract and placed Sanchez on the injured list with a right knee sprain. Jorge Mateo was transferred to the 60-day injured list to create room for Sanchez on the 40-man roster.

8:44am: The Orioles have acquired catcher Alex Jackson in exchange for international signing bonus pool money and a player to be named later or cash considerations, per an announcement from the Yankees. Jackson is not on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will not be necessary unless Baltimore selects Jackson to the roster.

The move comes after catcher Gary Sanchez exited yesterday’s Orioles game with what the club described at the time as “right knee pain.” As noted by Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun, interim manager Tony Mansolino did not have a more specific diagnosis available after the game but noted that Sanchez was set to undergo an MRI last night. The results of that MRI are not yet available, but it certainly seems as though a trip to the injured list is on the table. Weyrich was among those to report this morning that catcher David Banuelos had been added to the medical taxi squad following Sanchez’s injury, and now this morning’s acquisition of Jackson adds another potential replacement for Sanchez to the mix.

Jackson, 29, was selected sixth overall in the 2014 draft by the Mariners but didn’t make it to the majors until 2019 as a member of the Braves. He’s notched 124 games in the majors across parts of five big league seasons, with his largest showing coming as a member of the Rays last year. Jackson offers a solid glove behind the plate but virtually no offensive value with a career slash line of just .132/.224/.232. His performance in Tampa was even weaker than that as he hit just .122/.201/.237 in 58 games, leaving him with a 29 wRC+ that was not only 71% worse than league average but the second-worst figure among all players with at least 150 plate appearances in the majors last year.

It’s not exactly an exciting profile, but Jackson still offers the Orioles some depth at a time where additional options are extremely necessary for the club. Starting catcher Adley Rutschman has been sidelined since June 19 by an oblique strain, and since then depth catchers Maverick Handley and Chadwick Tromp were both sidelined by injuries of their own. That’s left backup catcher Gary Sanchez to take the starting role while being backed up by fifth-string backstop Jacob Stallings. With Sanchez now seemingly ticketed for an IL stint of his own, Banuelos or Jackson could be called upon to back up Stallings while the 35-year-old steps into a starting role.

That the Orioles appear likely to lean on a sixth catcher (and acquired a seventh) amid this rash of injuries underscores their refusal to promote top prospect Samuel Basallo to the majors. The 20-year-old is a consensus top 15 prospect in the sport and has torn the cover off the ball in Triple-A this year, slashing .253/.372/.547 with 16 homers in just 58 games and a 15.6% walk rate. While GM Mike Elias has suggested that he “hopes” to see Basallo play in the majors this year, it’s clear at this point that Baltimore doesn’t have much interest in bringing him up to the majors at this point in time. Perhaps he could be called upon late in the season as a September call-up, or there could be a specific aspect of Basallo’s game that the Orioles feel needs to develop further before he can debut. Potent as his bat has been, there’s long been questions about Basallo’s defensive ability behind the plate that may be leading the Orioles to be cautious about bringing him up to the majors as a regular catcher without more seasoning.

Jorge Mateo To Miss 8 To 12 Weeks With Hamstring Strain

By Darragh McDonald | July 1, 2025 at 5:45pm CDT

Orioles infielder/outfielder Jorge Mateo won’t be back soon. Interim manager Tony Mansolino relayed to reporters today, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, that Mateo has a hamstring strain and will miss 8 to 12 weeks. Mateo is already on the 10-day injured list, due to a different injury, but will be moved to the 60-day version whenever the club needs his roster spot.

Mateo hit the injured list June 10th due to left elbow inflammation. He had recently been on a rehab assignment but departed last night’s game due to the hamstring injury. It now appears that the injury is serious enough to put his season in jeopardy. Given that timeline, it seems he won’t be back until September, even in a best-case scenario.

It’s an unfortunate blow for Mateo and the Orioles. He wasn’t having a great season at the plate even prior to the injuries, with a .180/.231/.279 line in 65 plate appearances. But he was still able to bounce around to multiple positions while stealing bases.

He has been doing that for the Orioles for years, though often with more passable work at the plate. From 2022 to 2024, he slashed .221/.267/.371 for a 78 wRC+. That was still subpar offense but he was able to produce 4.1 wins above replacement, in the eyes of FanGraphs, in a span of 334 games thanks to his speed and defense.

The O’s are 37-47 and seven games back of a playoff spot. Getting Mateo back to that pre-2025 form could have been a boost to the club but that won’t happen now. He’s an impending free agent, though with a club option for 2026 on his deal, which would have made him a trade candidate if the club were selling. But that’s off the table now as well. Players on the IL can be traded but Mateo won’t have any value on account of his status, his performance earlier this year, and his $3.55MM salary.

On a personal level, it’s obviously less than ideal for Mateo to go into free agency with this kind of platform. His numbers have been poor so far and it seems he’ll get little time to improve them, maybe even none at all. Despite his tepid offense, the O’s have liked his other contributions enough to continually tender him contracts. He made $2.7MM last year and is making $3.55MM this year. They even negotiated a $5.5MM club option for 2026 into his deal to potentially gain an extra year of club control. But they won’t be picking that up now and he’ll head into free agency on a down note.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

Orioles Select Luis Vázquez

By Nick Deeds | June 10, 2025 at 5:38pm CDT

The Orioles announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Luis Vázquez. He’ll take the active roster spot of infielder/outfielder Jorge Mateo, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left elbow inflammation, retroactive to June 7th. The 40-man roster count climbs from 38 to 39. The O’s added that right-hander Matt Bowman, who was recently designated for assignment, has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

Vazquez, 25, was acquired from the Cubs in a minor trade back in January. The infielder was a 14th-round pick by Chicago back in 2017 but made it to the majors for the first time just last year with an 11-game stint on the North Side. Vazquez split time between shortstop, third base, and second base during his brief call-up and looked competent at all three of those positions defensively, but hit just .083 with six strikeouts in 14 plate appearances during that brief call-up to the majors. Other than that, he spent the entire year at Triple-A Iowa, where he hit a solid but unspectacular .263/.347/.432 in 64 games, which in terms of wRC+ sat right around league average with a figure of 98.

During the offseason, the Cubs committed to a complete overhaul of their third base and bench mixes. Aside from promoting top prospect Matt Shaw, they brought in Jon Berti, Vidal Brujan, and Justin Turner to round out the bench mix while parting ways with not only starting third baseman Isaac Paredes but also longtime bench pieces like Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal, and David Bote. Vazquez found himself let go as part of that purge and was designated for assignment to make room for the addition of Berti to the 40-man roster, which ultimately facilitated his trade to the Orioles organization. The infielder didn’t last long on the Orioles’ own 40-man roster and was outrighted to the minors just a week after the club acquired him. He received some consideration for an Opening Day roster spot but ultimately began the season at Triple-A Norfolk, where he’s slashed .280/.345/.447 with a 114 wRC+ in 37 games this year.

Vazquez is now set to take over for Mateo on the Orioles’ bench. Mateo’s dealing with discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, so while MLB.com notes that Mateo underwent an MRI that revealed no structural damage it’s hardly a surprise that Baltimore has decided to be cautious with their utility man. Mateo is presently in the midst of his worst season as an Oriole with a 44 wRC+ and a 35.4% strikeout rate, so it’s possible that the time off could give him some time to reset as well. The soon to be 30-year-old remains a useful bench piece despite his paltry offense this year thanks to his elite baserunning (14 steals in 15 attempts this year as a part-time player) and his versatility to handle virtually every spot on the diamond as needed. Vazquez, Ramon Urias, and Dylan Carlson will all be tasked with helping to pick up the slack while Mateo is on the shelf.

As for Bowman, the right-hander made his debut back in 2016 and spent a few years as a solid middle reliever for the Reds and Cardinals before falling off the map for a few years due to injuries. He resurfaced in 2023 and has bounced between the Yankees, Twins, Diamondbacks, Mariners, and Orioles over the past three years while putting together a 4.79 ERA and 4.91 FIP in 56 1/3 innings. He’ll now head to Triple-A to serve as non-roster relief depth for Baltimore going forward.

Gunnar Henderson To Open Season On Injured List

By Nick Deeds | March 23, 2025 at 9:49am CDT

Orioles GM Mike Elias made a number of announcements as the club begins to finalize its Opening Day roster plans, as relayed by multiple reporters including Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball. Most notable among those announcements is the fact that star shortstop Gunnar Henderson will open the season on the 10-day injured list. Additionally, Elias announced that southpaw Cade Povich will serve as the club’s fifth starter to open the season, with veteran journeyman Albert Suarez serving in a bullpen role.

The news regarding Henderson is a tough blow, given the star youngster is coming off an otherworldly 2024 campaign where he finished fourth in a stacked AL MVP class. A .281/.364/.529 (155 wRC+) hitter in 159 games last year, Henderson paired that excellent offense with 21 stolen bases and solid defense at shortstop en route to a 8.0 fWAR/9.1 bWAR campaign. With his 24th birthday still three months away, fans in Baltimore and around MLB have been looking forward to seeing how Henderson will build on his breakout campaign last year, though that will now be put on the backburner for at least the time being.

Fortunately, Elias indicated to reporters that the club remains hopeful that his absence, which is due to an intercostal strain that has sidelined him for much of Spring Training, should be a relatively short one. Henderson will miss at least seven days, as he’ll need to be placed on the 10-day injured list on Opening Day which can be backdated only a maximum of three days, but Elias’s comments seem to suggest that the club expects he won’t miss much more than that minimum time. For the time Henderson is out of action, the Orioles could look to Jackson Holliday at shortstop, thereby opening up second base for Ramon Urias.

Another option could be utility man Jorge Mateo, who has spent the spring recovery from elbow surgery. Orioles brass have previously cast doubt on his ability to be ready for Opening Day, but Elias noted this morning that the club is not ruling the possibility of Mateo breaking camp with the club out entirely. Mateo has experience all over the diamond but has played the overwhelming majority of his time in the majors at shortstop, which would make him a relatively seamless replacement for Henderson in the early days of the season if healthy. Of course, Mateo can’t offer anywhere near the offensive explosiveness that Henderson provides, having hit just .229/.267/.401 in 68 games last year.

Meanwhile, Elias also announced that the club’s fifth starter situation has been settled. The lefty Povich will join right-handers Charlie Morton, Tomoyuki Sugano, Dean Kremer, and Zach Eflin in the rotation to begin the year, with Suarez ticketed for the long relief role he opened the 2024 campaign in before eventually being pushed into a rotation job by injuries. It’s an exciting opportunity for the soon to be 25-year-old Povich, who debuted with the Orioles last year and made 16 starts, though he struggled to a 5.20 ERA with a 4.79 FIP in 79 2/3 innings of work. He’s looked quite good in Spring Training, however, with a 3.07 ERA in four starts throughout camp, and will look to carry that momentum forward into the regular season.

Povich’s time in the rotation figures to last only as long as Grayson Rodriguez’s absence due to elbow inflammation. The 25-year-old righty appears to be making progress in his return from the issue, though Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner cautions that Rodriguez is starting “near square zero” in his buildup towards game action. That would suggest the righty will need more or less a full spring workload before he can return to the rotation even after making two starts earlier in camp, which seems likely to give Povich at least four or five turns through the rotation before Rodriguez will be nearing a return, if not longer.

Orioles Notes: Henderson, Mateo, Urias

By Nick Deeds | March 16, 2025 at 9:35am CDT

Orioles star Gunnar Henderson provided a positive update on the status of his intercostal strain yesterday, telling reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASN) that he’s “feeling good” as he works his way back to the field in hopes of being ready for Opening Day. Henderson first suffered the injury in late February, and after nearly three weeks of rehab the shortstop expressed some optimism about his situation.

“It’s getting there,” Henderson said, as relayed by Kubatko. “It’s a lot better than what it originally felt like.”

He went on to add that his “plan” is to be active and in the lineup for Opening Day against the Blue Jays on March 27, and hopefully get into some Spring Training games before then as well. While he wasn’t in either lineup for today’s set to split squad Grapefruit League games, Opening Day is still almost two weeks away which should offer the Orioles a bit of time to work with as they look to get Henderson up to speed in time for the start of the regular season.

Losing the shortstop for any amount of time would be devastating given that he was one of the top players in the entire sport last year. After impressing in a 32-game cup of coffee during the 2022 season, Henderson won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 2023 before making his first All-Star game last year and finishing fourth in a stacked AL MVP class behind Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr. and Juan Soto. If Henderson were to miss time, the club could slide Jackson Holliday over to shortstop from second base, with a potential bench player like Livan Soto handling second or perhaps Jordan Westburg moving to the keystone to make room for Coby Mayo at the hot corner. Of course, for now the Orioles seem to be focused on preparing Henderson for the start of the season rather than potential alternatives.

While Henderson seemingly remains on track to break camp with the club, the same cannot be said for utility man Jorge Mateo. As noted by Kubatko, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters Friday that it’s “very doubtful” Mateo will be ready for Opening Day. The versatile hitter has spent the spring recovering from elbow surgery, and recently expressed optimism that he’d be able to make it back in time for Opening Day. That optimism isn’t entirely unfounded, as Mateo is making his spring debut today. With that being said, the final decision of Mateo’s readiness will come down to Hyde and GM Mike Elias, both of whom have now expressed doubt about Mateo’s odds of breaking camp with the club.

Back to more promising injury news, infielder Ramon Urias has been slowed in recent days by a sore hamstring but is not expected to miss significant time due to the issue. Kubatko writes that the 30-year-old went through a full slate of defensive work and took batting practice yesterday, while MLB.com’s Jake Rill notes that Urias told reporters this morning that his hamstring is feeling better and that there’s “no concern” about his ability to be ready for Opening Day. Urias is in neither lineup for today’s split squad games, but both he and Hyde expressed optimism that he would be back in the lineup for Baltimore in relatively short order.

AL Notes: Meadows, Pérez, Mateo, Estévez

By Darragh McDonald | March 12, 2025 at 4:25pm CDT

The Tigers are facing a few injuries in their outfield mix, with each of Matt Vierling, Parker Meadows and Wenceel Pérez battling health issues. Vierling has already been ruled out for Opening Day due to a rotator cuff strain and Meadows might not make it for the opener either.

Meadows has been experiencing a nerve issue in his upper right arm. He tells Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press that the issue is with the musculocutaneous nerve specifically, which isn’t progressing much. Meadows still hasn’t been cleared to throw, which obviously means he can’t play, though he has been doing some other activities that don’t involve throwing.

“He’s not full go,” manager A.J. Hinch said today. “He’s just making incremental steps, whatever that means. And he’s not ready for games. He’s not close to games right now, but that can change as soon as soon as we shake this nerve up, wake it up. Things are better than they were, but still not full go.” Meadows still thinks he can be ready by Opening Day but that will obviously be dependent on things improving in the next week or two.

Pérez has some back tightness and was supposed to return to the lineup today but that has not come to pass and he might be held out of tomorrow’s game as well. With Vierling and Meadows hurt, Pérez would have been a logical candidate to jump into the outfield but his back issues make that a bit iffy. Hinch downplayed the concern, saying that the club is just being “uber cautious”, but it’s yet another question mark for the club.

Riley Greene will be in one outfield spot and could perhaps be joined by Meadows and/or Pérez. If not, Kerry Carpenter could take some time out there, letting Spencer Torkelson get some time as the designated hitter. Justyn-Henry Malloy is also on the 40-man and the Tigers also have utility players Andy Ibáñez and Zach McKinstry as potential contributors.

Some other notes from around the American League…

Orioles utility player Jorge Mateo is recovering from last year’s elbow surgery. A month ago, general manager Mike Elias stated that Mateo was unlikely to be ready by Opening Day, but the player himself is now feeling a bit more optimistic. “I think we’re going to make it,” he said this week to Jacob Calvin Meyer of The Baltimore Sun. That could be a key development for the O’s since shortstop Gunnar Henderson is battling an intercostal strain and it’s unclear if he’ll be ready for Opening Day himself. Even if Henderson is good to go, having Mateo on the roster next to him would give the club a bit more cover at the position.
Royals right-hander Carlos Estévez signed a two-year, $22MM deal with the Royals about six weeks ago but still hasn’t made his spring training debut with his new club. The reliever has been battling some back tightness which has put him a bit behind schedule. Manager Matt Quatraro today provided a positive update to Anne Rogers of MLB.com, saying that Estévez threw live batting practice yesterday, which went “really well.” That puts him in line to make his Cactus League debut on Friday. With about two weeks until Opening Day, Estévez should be able to avoid the injured list if he doesn’t hit any setbacks between now and then.

Trevor Rogers, Jorge Mateo Unlikely To Be Ready For Opening Day

By Darragh McDonald | February 13, 2025 at 1:35pm CDT

With camps opening for spring training, it’s common for clubs to provide updates on player health or the lack thereof. Orioles general manager Mike Elias today informed members of the media, including Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun and Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, that both left-hander Trevor Rogers and infielder/outfielder Jorge Mateo are unlikely to be healthy by Opening Day.

The news on Mateo isn’t particularly surprising, as he underwent significant left elbow surgery in August. That was to repair his ulnar collateral ligament and add an internal brace, as well as repairing the flexor tendon. That procedure was on his non-throwing arm but the expected recovery timeline was still going to take a few months. The O’s have said at times that Mateo could perhaps be ready for a full season in 2025 but it now seems that his recovery will extend at least partway into the season.

The news on Rogers comes out of nowhere, as he didn’t spend any time on the injured list last year. Per Elias, he suffered a right kneecap subluxation in January. It’s unclear exactly how it happened but Rogers himself told Kubatko that it dislocated for about a second. Though the lefty downplayed the severity and said he’s already playing catch, he is apparently weeks behind schedule.

It appears it won’t be a devastating blow but it’s another frustrating development in what has already been a difficult Baltimore tenure for the southpaw. Acquired from the Marlins at the deadline last year, Rogers was torched for 15 earned runs in 19 innings over his first four starts as an Oriole and got optioned to Triple-A. He then made five starts for Norfolk with a 5.65 ERA to finish the year.

Going into 2025, he was likely blocked from securing a rotation gig to start the season. On top of his poor finish in 2024, the O’s added Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano on one-year deals to pad out the rotation alongside Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer.

Rogers is still optionable and may have been ticketed for another stint in Norfolk to start 2025 if he were healthy. An injury to those front five starters could have opened a path for him but he would be competing with guys like Albert Suárez, Chayce McDermott and Cade Povich for the #6 spot on the depth chart.

The O’s would obviously love for Rogers to get back into his 2021 form. With the Marlins that year, he made 25 starts with a 2.64 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. But his ERA climbed to 5.47 the following year and he spent most of 2023 on the injured list. He bounced back somewhat last year, with a 4.53 ERA prior to the trade, but then had his aforementioned struggles after the swap. The club will have a bit less pitching depth to start the year, though they have other options there. For Rogers personally, he’ll be a bit delayed in heading down the comeback trail.

Mateo would ideally be on the club’s bench, providing the Orioles with depth all over. In his career, he has played every position outside of the battery and first base. He’s not a huge hitter but is a threat to steal 30 bases a year, having done so twice, and gets strong marks for his glovework at several different spots. RosterResource currently projects the club’s four-man bench to consist of catcher Gary Sánchez and infielder Ramón Urías, with Ramón Laureano and Heston Kjerstad backing up the outfield. Kjerstad is the only one in that group who can be optioned to the minors, perhaps leaving him vulnerable to getting sent to the minors once Mateo is healthy unless someone else goes on the IL.

Orioles Sign Jorge Mateo To Extension

By Anthony Franco | January 28, 2025 at 5:37pm CDT

The Orioles announced this evening that they’ve agreed to a deal with utilityman Jorge Mateo to avoid arbitration. It’s a one-year contract that comes with a club option for 2026. Mateo has five years of service time and would have qualified for free agency next winter, so the deal adds an extra season of team control. The Quality Control Sports client reportedly receives a $3.55MM salary next season. The club option is valued at $5.5MM with another $500K in escalators based on this year’s playing time. The option price would jump by $125K apiece at 460, 480, 500 and 520 plate appearances.

Teams had until January 15 to agree to terms with their arbitration-eligible players. If no deal was in place by then, they needed to exchange filing figures. They were free to continue negotiations beyond that point, though most clubs refuse to discuss straight one-year deals after the exchange deadline. Mateo had filed for a $4MM salary, while the Orioles filed at $3.1MM. They settled at the midpoint, though Mateo concedes a ’26 club option to do so.

The addition of the club option on Mateo’s deal means the Orioles haven’t broken their self-imposed “file and trial” system. Arbitration deals that include an option year cannot be used as precedents in future hearings. It wraps up Baltimore’s arbitration dealings for this winter. The O’s had agreed to terms with their 11 other arbitration-eligible players by January 15. This is the second straight year in which the Orioles reached a late arbitration deal to buy out a free agent season. They took a similar tack with first baseman Ryan O’Hearn last February. That ended up working out for the club, as O’Hearn played well enough for Baltimore to trigger an $8MM option to keep him from hitting the market.

Mateo is headed into his fourth full season with the Orioles. Baltimore grabbed him off waivers from the Padres in the second half of the ’21 campaign. He had a career year in 2022, as he led the American League with 35 stolen bases while posting elite defensive grades at shortstop. There’s been plenty of speculation over the following two years that the Orioles could deal Mateo, who was pushed out of an everyday infield role by Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and eventually Jackson Holliday. The O’s have opted against making such a move, evidently valuing Mateo’s speed and defensive versatility off the bench more than whatever they might’ve received in a trade.

Over the last two seasons, Mateo has gotten into 177 games. He’s only hitting .222/.267/.363 over that stretch, though he has swiped 45 bases in 52 attempts. Mateo can back up Henderson and Holliday in the middle infield and has the speed to spell Cedric Mullins in center field. Holliday’s early struggles gave Mateo an opportunity to play regularly at the keystone early last year. Unfortunately, his season was cut short in late July. Mateo tore the UCL in his left (non-throwing) elbow when he collided with Henderson while pursuing a slow grounder up the middle. He underwent surgery in late August.

There’s no indication that the injury will affect Mateo’s readiness for the start of next season. Baltimore was confident enough in his health to keep him around. He’ll join Ramón Urías and new backup catcher Gary Sánchez as locks for Brandon Hyde’s bench so long as he’s healthy.

Baltimore’s player payroll now sits around $156MM, according to the RosterResource calculations. Those are almost entirely short-term commitments. Offseason pickup Tyler O’Neill is the only player on a guaranteed deal that stretches beyond next season (and he can opt out after this year). Their only other commitment is a $1MM option buyout for reliever Andrew Kittredge. That opens the possibility that Mateo plays well enough for Baltimore to exercise the option, though they’re unlikely to be hurting for infield talent anytime soon.

Francys Romero first reported Mateo’s $3.55MM salary and the $5.5MM option with $500K in escalators. The Associated Press had the escalator specifics. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Quick Hits: Int’l Market, Mets, Soto, Mateo, Rays, Yankees

By Mark Polishuk | November 17, 2024 at 11:07pm CDT

Roki Sasaki’s impending move to Major League Baseball will have a big impact on the offseason pitching market, but plenty of shockwaves will be felt throughout the international signing market. Baseball America’s Ben Badler recently outlined how several other prospects will be affected if Sasaki’s 45-day posting window stretches beyond January 15 and the start of the next international signing period. If Sasaki doesn’t sign until after January 15, teams will have to use funds from their 2025 signing pools to sign him, rather than their 2024 pools. The 2024 signing period closes on December 15, further narrowing the window of time for Sasaki and an MLB team to finalize a contract.

Since it seems likely Sasaki will indeed still be unsigned by January 15, Badler observes that multiple teams could end up putting their plans for the next signing period entirely on hold until the right-hander makes his decision. This means that the many prospects already committed to these teams on unofficial deals will be in limbo, and the club that finally lands Sasaki is likely to walk away from those pre-existing handshake deals if it means landing the Japanese star. It would leave that team’s set of international prospects suddenly looking to land elsewhere, and potentially other clubs’ prospects might also walk away from their agreements if nothing is finalized on January 15. As Badler notes, teams that aren’t in the running for Sasaki could benefit in swooping in to sign some extra prospects in the aftermath.

The entire situation adds a lot of extra drama to what is normally a fairly routine day on the calendar, as clubs have had these deals with these young January 15th prospects worked out years in advance, sometimes when the players are barely teenagers. Needless to say, it creates a lot of disruption for the players, their families, and their trainers who helped arrange the signings, as what looked like safe pre-arranged windfalls might now be in question. As much as Sasaki may have a higher clear upside than an entire bonus pool’s worth of international prospects, abandoning a January 15th class could create some hard feelings for a team in their future int’l dealings.

Jorge Mateo Undergoes Season-Ending Elbow Surgery

By Anthony Franco | August 28, 2024 at 9:10pm CDT

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.

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