Report: Padres to acquire former top Yankees prospect in first MLB trade since March
Baseball fans have waited three months to hear these four words: We have a trade.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel, the San Diego Padres will acquire infielder Jorge Mateo from the Oakland Athletics in Major League Baseball’s first trade since transactions were frozen amid the coronavirus shutdown back in March.
The A’s will receive a player to be named later.
Here’s how you know baseball is back: We’ve got a trade — and a player to be named later!
The San Diego Padres are acquiring middle infielder Jorge Mateo from the Oakland A’s for a PTBNL, sources tell me and @kileymcd.— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 30, 2020
Mateo, 25, was once a highly regarded prospect in the New York Yankees farm system. He was traded to Oakland along with Dustin Fowler and James Kaprielian at the 2017 non-waiver trade deadline in the deal that brought Sonny Gray to New York.
Since then, Mateo’s career has been up and down. He did notably finish 2019 with a career-best 19 homers at Triple-A, but a call to MLB has yet to come.
Opportunities in San Diego will be hard to come by thanks to the Padres loaded infield. The Padres have Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar, Eric Hosmer and Wil Myers as options. Mateo should improve the team’s depth, which is a critical aspect going into this 60-game season. He could also be viewed as a development player with potential to pay off down the road.
Now that MLB’s rosters are unfrozen, expect several more trades to come before opening day on July 23.
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