Jorge Mateo 2024

[Sports Guy]

Just now, eddie83 said:

We know they like to start Mateo vs LHP. I think it’s more of a question about Urias when Mateo starts vs RHP.  
 

Which, as someone pointed out, he had double the at bats vs righties compared to lefties.  Mateo playing vs lefties and Urias vs righties is how things should be…well Mayo should be here and neither really plays or is gone but with the way the roster is, that’s how it should be and how it should have been the last 6 or so weeks.

[forphase1]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

I have said for the last 6ish weeks that Urias needed to play more.

There are a lot of people I would like off the team.  Urias isn’t someone I want off but he’s expendable…but he’s better than Mateo and should play more than him.(at least in a role of semi regular..Mateo is the better role player/bench piece)

I want them both off of the team really.  Or at least regulated to a bench/role player role.  Right now one of the two of them is starting every game, and frankly neither are good enough to start that much.  We've too much talent in the minors to be throwing Mateo/Urias into the lineup every single game.  That said, Urias should be starting most games over Mateo given our current roster as Mateos bat has disappeared, just as we all knew it would.

[Brooks The Great]

4 minutes ago, forphase1 said:

I want them both off of the team really.  Or at least regulated to a bench/role player role.  Right now one of the two of them is starting every game, and frankly neither are good enough to start that much.  We've too much talent in the minors to be throwing Mateo/Urias into the lineup every single game.  That said, Urias should be starting most games over Mateo given our current roster as Mateos bat has disappeared, just as we all knew it would.

I feel the same way. Urias should be released when Mayo comes up. I think Elias is being too careful trying to hold onto a player he picked up off of waivers for way too long - it's a management flaw of his. Elias should have no qualms sending Urias back to where he came from. 

I'd release Mateo also and bring back Norby, but now that Holliday is strictly DHing, I don't think Elias would ever want to lose Mateo in case Gunnar gets hurt. I disagree with that, because I think Jordan Westburg would be a perfectly adequate SS in the unfortunate scenario Gunnar suffers an injury. But having Mateo as emergency SS depth is definitely what Elias is thinking. 

Mateo is one of the worst hitters in baseball, and an overrated defender. He shouldn't start any more games for this team. His only value is as a pinch-runner, and even that won't be needed much once Elias and Hyde make the correct move to make Mullins the 4th OF and commit to giving Cowser and Kjerstad everyday at bats.

[G54377]

I think it's time to cut the band aid and remove ourselves from consistent Urias and Mateo at bats. If we want to hang on to Mateo because of his speed, fine. But eventually those two should not be getting starts.

[Aristotelian]

2 minutes ago, G54377 said:

I think it's time to cut the band aid and remove ourselves from consistent Urias and Mateo at bats. If we want to hang on to Mateo because of his speed, fine. But eventually those two should not be getting starts.

Problem is we would risk permanently losing either of them if we called up someone to replace them. Unless we option Cowser and make Mateo the backup CF.

[forphase1]

4 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Problem is we would risk permanently losing either of them if we called up someone to replace them. Unless we option Cowser and make Mateo the backup CF.

So?

[G54377]

At this point I'm not sure I care about losing Urias. Can't we find a trade partner for at least cash considerations? Trade him to the NL? Are we really worried about him helping someone else? He's a fringe starter that is not our best option. Mateo holds some value as a bench piece with his speed. 

[Aristotelian]

1 minute ago, forphase1 said:

So?

Ha, that is a valid reaction. But which one? Urias is actually hitting now but can't back up SS. Mateo can back up SS but can't hit.

Are you sure enough in Mayo's offense and defense that we can hand him the 3B job permanently? 

[forphase1]

1 minute ago, Aristotelian said:

Ha, that is a valid reaction. But which one? Urias is actually hitting now but can't back up SS. Mateo can back up SS but can't hit.

Are you sure enough in Mayo's offense and defense that we can hand him the 3B job permanently? 

I'm sure enough that Mateo is hurting the team with his awful at bats that I'm willing to risk it.   And while Urias is hitting better,  he's certainly not a long term solution either.   Trade/cut one and put the other on the bench 85% of the time. 

[Aristotelian]

51 minutes ago, forphase1 said:

I'm sure enough that Mateo is hurting the team with his awful at bats that I'm willing to risk it.   And while Urias is hitting better,  he's certainly not a long term solution either.   Trade/cut one and put the other on the bench 85% of the time. 

We aren't talking about the long term. There is a nonzero chance that Urias helps us win the WS this year. He is a good 3B and average hitter. Mayo is not a sure thing to match that production and if we DFA Urias there would then be no Plan B. I'm not against Mayo, just stating the other side.

[terpoh]

8 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

We aren't talking about the long term. There is a nonzero chance that Urias helps us win the WS this year. He is a good 3B and average hitter. Mayo is not a sure thing to match that production and if we DFA Urias there would then be no Plan B. I'm not against Mayo, just stating the other side.

You still have Westburg at 3B and Mateo/Norby/Holliday as options at 2B. Not sure I would call that no Plan B. We dont need to act like Urias is some sort of all star. If Mayo flops, the alternative I posted above would not be so much worse than Urias every day at 3B, and in fact it might be better. 

[forphase1]

3 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

We aren't talking about the long term. There is a nonzero chance that Urias helps us win the WS this year. He is a good 3B and average hitter. Mayo is not a sure thing to match that production and if we DFA Urias there would then be no Plan B. I'm not against Mayo, just stating the other side.

I'm talking about both this year and long term.   The idea that we should be worried about cutting Urias or Mateo because we may lose them is a bit silly to me.   Neither is worth losing sleep over if another team claims them.   

Gold glove notwithstanding, I don't love Urias (or Mateo for that matter) as much from a defensive standpoint as most of the OH.  He's a great backup,  but shouldn't be starting nearly this much.   If we cut/trade Urias and promote Mayo and he flops,  there are plenty of plan Bs.  Westburg can move to 3rd, with Mateo playing 2nd.  Or Norby at 2nd instead of Mateo.  Gunnar can play 3rd if absolutely needed, though of course we'd rather him stay at SS.  

All that said,  I'd rather cut Mateo than Urias, but I know the arguments either way.  Mateo is much easier to replace if Mayo fails as we can plug Urias back in and Urias us a much better hitter.   Sure we lose the speed, pinch runner and CF ability.  Cutting Mateo makes sending down Cowser more difficult.  But at the end of the day we need Mayos bat,  and need to remove Mateo from the lineup.  

[Gunnar]

Any updates on Mateo after the injury last night? It looked bad at the time but I heard x-rays were negative. Still wouldn't be surprised if his season is over.

[interloper]

53 minutes ago, Gunnar said:

Any updates on Mateo after the injury last night? It looked bad at the time but I heard x-rays were negative. Still wouldn't be surprised if his season is over.

He's supposed to get an MRI I believe. He's on the IL with Norby recalled. 

[Greg Pappas]

I'm hoping for a speedy recovery.  With that said, I don't recall ever seeing as many collisions, or near collisions between 2B/SS as I have with Mateo/Gunner... at least in the relatively short sample size of them playing with one another. I think that's typically on the 2B.