Mateo’s future is wide open
K ISSIMMEE, Fla. — Jorge Mateo turned professional in 2012, as a 16-year-old, for a moderate $250,000 signing bonus. The Yankees did not need to engage in an epic bidding war to bring aboard the young man they found to be “really athletic,” in the words of Gordon Blakeley. “These are the kinds of guys you want on your team,” Blakeley, now a special assistant to Braves general manager John Coppolella, recalled saying to Yankees director of international scouting Donny Rowland as he watched Mateo get ready for Thursday’s game at Champion Stadium. “You want athletes. If he doesn’t make it, we go sign the next guy that looks like him. Because if he hits and he plays in the big leagues, he’s got a chance to be a star.” Mateo hasn’t yet rewarded Rowland and Blakeley (then a Yankees scout) for their faith, nor has he flamed out. But the Yankees have gone ahead and taken the next step: They went ahead and acquired the next guy, Gleyber Torres, further muddying the pinstriped potential of Mateo, who in turn experienced a turbulent 2016. At just 21, Mateo faces many uncertainties: His next minor l eague ass ign - ment, his future position, how he will respond to last year’s disappointment. Could the best bet on him be that he will wind up as a Yankees trade chip?
“We’re not doing that stuff for trade value,” general manager Brian Cashman said, referring to the Yankees’ exposure of many young players to multiple positions. “We had discussions already. Clearly Mateo, you can stick him in center field. Torres can’t go to the outfield. It doesn’t profile for him. Mateo could. Do you? Should you? We played with it in the [instructional] league, but he hit
so damn good at short, it’s kind of hard to take him off of short at the same time. “We’ll continue to talk through it. But all he needs to do is play and play well. And we’ll adjust accordingly.” The trade-chip idea simply reflects the current reality: Mateo is behind Torres, the dynamo whom the Yankees acquired from the Cubs in July’s Aroldis Chapman trade, and not far ahead of Tyler Wade, another versatile type. And the Yankees should get to a juncture, be it this season, next season or in 2019, at which they’ll be ready to buy once again. Hence Mateo works in a Yankees uniform. He entered Thursday’s game, an 8-7 victory over the Braves, in the sixth inning and went 0-for-2, striking out and launching a blast to left-center field that Atlanta’s Emilio Bonifacio tracked down in the gap. He has a .154/.154/.231 slash line in 13 at-bats over 10 games — five at shortstop, four at second base and one just as a pinch runner. He could be optioned to minor league camp as soon as this weekend, and Cashman said Mateo will start the year either at Class-A Tampa, where he played last year, or Double-A Trenton, where Torres will be.
“Hopefully, I’ll go do Double-A,” Mateo said through an interpreter. “It’s something that I really have no control over.”
He said shortstop is his favorite position, though when I asked him about playing center field, he responded in English: “It’s cool.”
His 2016 will go down as quite uncool. He slashed . 254/. 306/. 379, career lows across the board, in 113 games for High-A Tampa. He also served a two-week suspension for violating a team policy that neither he nor the Yankees has specified.
“When you go through something like that, it helps you mature as a person,” Mateo said. “[You get] a better understanding: You have to follow the policy of the team.”
In 2015, the Yankees expressed openness to dealing Mateo to San Diego for closer Craig Kimbrel (now Sale’s Red Sox teammate). And Mateo ranked higher on the Yankees’ depth chart then.
“All he needs to do is play, and play well,” Cashman said. “And we’ll adjust accordingly.”
Their adjustments to this point have ensured Mateo of only one current guarantee: He will get to play, somewhere on the diamond, somewhere in the United States. His final destinations remain very much to be determined.