The potential the Padres see in Jorge Mateo, and just why they traded for him.
When it comes to baseball news over the past few months, it has only been about how the negotiations between the MLB and the MLBPA have been going. The good news is that the two sides have come to terms on a deal, and the season just began the other night. Now that the season is officially on, the freeze on all-league transactions has ended, meaning teams can now sign and trade players as they wish. To start things off, just a couple of days ago the Oakland A’s traded prospect, Jorge Mateo, to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later (PTBNL for short). Mateo was the number seven prospect in the A’s organization according to MLB Pipeline and he will likely be a top 20 prospect for the Padres, due to their incredible farm system. Mateo has had a rough journey in the minor leagues, but the Padres seem to see potential in him, and I’m going to dive into exactly why the Padres traded for him.
Mateo was born and raised in the Dominican Republic but there is not much information out there and how his baseball journey began. Mateo was signed by the Yankees as an international free agent in 2012 when he was just 17 years old. He was a natural center fielder due to his electrifying speed, but the Yankees wanted to turn him into their future shortstop, a tough task considering the man who played that position for them for 20 years, Derek Jeter. Mateo was signed due to his speed, and his ability to hit for pop, get on base, and play above-average defence. Mateo started strong in the minors, and he became the number 17 best prospect in the Yankees organization. At the trade deadline in 2017, the Yankees, who were in need of a good starting pitcher for their eventual playoff run, traded Mateo along with two other prospects to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for right-handed pitcher Sonny Gray. The trade looked promising for Mateo, as he was the main piece in the trade that the A’s wanted, and he was headed to an organization that has long been amazing at finding undervalued talent ( remember Moneyball?) and developing players. Mateo joined the A’s Double-A team and had a good rest of the season with the team, putting up a slash line of .292/.333/.518 for an OPS of .851 along with four home runs. Mateo has never been known as a power bat though. He is seen as a solid lead-off hitter, who with good development could be among league leaders in on-base-percentage and batting average. Mateo would spend 2018 and 2019 playing for the A’s Triple-A team, The Las Vegas Aviators. Mateo had an incredibly rough 2018 season, hitting for a slash line of .230/.280/.353. Mateo also struck out in over a quarter of his at-bats (27.3% to be exact) in 2018, and only walked 5.7%. Mateo seemed to completely change his approach at the plate. The game of baseball has become a power fest, with single-season team home run records being broken every single year. Mateo knows that, and whether it was him or the Athletics who taught him, Mateo had adopted a “swing for the fences” approach. This isn’t a horrible strategy, players like Joey Gallo have had success with that approach. There’s a difference between Gallo and Mateo though, Gallo is 6’5”, 235 pounds, and has been a power hitter his whole life. Mateo is 6 foot, 190 pounds, and has never hit for power. Mateo would come back in 2019 and put up a very good season, putting up a slash line of .289/.330/.504 for an OPS of .834. Mateo also hit 19 home runs, 1 less than he had from 2016–2018 combined and he also led the minor leagues in triples with 14. Mateo was still striking out a lot though, with a strikeout percentage at 25.6 %, just slightly better than 2018. Mateo showed that he had the power to possibly hit 20 home runs a season, while also getting on base at a good clip, something that is incredibly valuable for a lead-off hitter.
Then just last week he was traded to the Padres, another team known for their player development. The Padres made it clear as soon as they traded for him, Mateo would be moving back to his original position of center-field. The decision is mainly because the shortstop position is already occupied for the Padres with Fernando Tatis Jr expected to play there for years to come. MLB Pipeline, the premier spot to find out everything about baseball’s future stars, gave Mateo this scouting report for 2020, “The enigmatic speedster did put a rough 2018 season behind him by putting up very good numbers in 2019, but even then showed his streakiness by fading badly down the stretch as other teammates got called up to the big leagues. When Mateo is at his best, he has wow tools, starting with his top-of-the-scale speed. That makes him very dangerous on the base-paths, though he hasn’t been looking to steal as much with the A’s as he did earlier in his career. He is capable of making hard contact with surprising pop at the plate, though he’s struggled with plate discipline for much of his career. Most of that can be attributed to his game clock. When he goes too fast, his strikeouts spike. When he slows down too much and gets low energy, he’s too passive.” The part of that report about Mateo’s plate discipline is what I want to touch on. When Mateo is going up to the plate attempting to do something, usually hit a home run, he gets too aggressive and his strikeouts rise, but when he goes up not looking to hit for power he becomes too passive. Mateo’s problem, just like most young players, is his approach at the plate, and that he is trying to do much.
The Padres saw something in Mateo, and just because he was traded only for a PTBNL doesn’t mean the Padres didn’t see value in Mateo’s game. The Padres are going to attempt to develop Mateo into a player that can play every day on their major league team. Mateo is just 25 years old, so he still has plenty of time to develop and become a better player, because there isn’t a clock in baseball. Many players have succeeded at the majors while being called up late. Jose Bautista became an everyday player at age 29, same with Dante Bichette, and Randy Johnson was a mediocre pitcher up until his age 30 season, and he has his name in the hall of fame. Mateo has the tools to become an incredible baseball player in the MLB, but he has to shed some of the tools from his kit, and hone in on the skills that he has. He is going back to playing his natural position of center field and the Padres look to figure out how to fix his weaknesses at the plate. Jorge Mateo is going to be a key piece in the Padres future, and that’s why they traded for him.
