B BLUE CHIP
Forgotten prospect still wants to be Yankee, even as trade talk heats up
Y AGE 22, Jorge Mateo has been the Yankees’ best prospect, suspended, plunged into relative minor league obscurity and risen again as such an attractive trade chip that he is engulfed by trade rumors.
It has been a whirlwind that hasn’t quite stopped spinning since Mateo was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2012, when he was slotted nearly instantly into the role of Yankees savior, a blink-and-you-miss-him shortstop with a strong arm and a body that projects to fill out and give him more pop. Then the struggles came, then the suspension came for, according to The Post’s George King, mouthing off to executives for not being promoted, and then Gleyber Torres came and knocked Mateo off his shortstop perch.
Amid a torrid turnaround since being moved up to Double-A Trenton late last month, the question is whether a trade is coming next.
“No, no, not at all,” Mateo said in Spanish over the phone on Friday about whether trade rumors have bothered him. The Yankees’ eighth-best prospect, according to MLB.com, has been linked to a potential trade for Oakland’s Sonny Gray.
Though Mateo contended the rumors don’t stick in his brain, he made it clear being a Yankee is special to him.
“Becoming a [major league] Yankee would be big for me,” Mateo said. “This is the team that gave me the opportunity to get signed. It would be great for me.”
Becoming a member of the Trenton Thunder also has been great for him. Out of spring training, Mateo was assigned to High-A Tampa, the same level at which he struggled in 2016. In the Florida State League, few fans watched as his bat never woke up this season. He slashed .240/.288/.400 with four home runs and 28 steals in 69 games.
“You really have to self-motivate yourself in Florida sometimes,” Trenton manager Bobby Mitchell said. “I think he was just ready to move on. Once he got here, he started playing for the crowd. He’s had a really good season so far.”
It has been the kind of short season the Yankees have been waiting for — and the Athletics have been keeping track of. In 27 games entering Saturday, he has shown off everything that has been whispered about in the last five years. His speed (“I don’t think I’ve seen a guy run like him,” Mitchell said) has been on full display, with 10 steals while honing a bunt the Yankees would like added to his arsenal.
His dormant bat has come alive: He has lined 16 doubles, eight triples and four homers to complement a .306 average. And Mateo has bounced from his natural shortstop position to second base to center field, where his gliding has reminded Mitchell of seventime Gold Glove winner Devon White.
“I’m enjoying [playing center field] a lot,” Mateo said. “I’ve always loved playing shortstop, but God gave me the chance to play another position so that more doors would open for me. Whatever position I play in the major leagues, I’m going to give it 100 percent.”
With each fly ball he runs down, the circuitous Yankees project shows more signs of paying off, whether as a trade chip or homegrown prospect. Mitchell said Ma- teo still needs more experience in the outfield, but added he has the “outstanding” arm strength and speed to one day be a major league center fielder. The Yankees have a crowded outfield, and their No. 1 prospect, Torres, himself has begun moving off shortstop as Didi Gregorius has emerged as an AllStar-caliber player. Where Mateo would fit in the Yankees’ future is unclear.
“For my family to be able to watch me play in the major leagues on TV would be amazing,” Mateo said.
So Mateo waits until the Monday trade deadline, ready to exchange caps, jerseys, locations and teams if he gets the call, another life-altering move possibly on the horizon for a 22-year-old who has seen a few.
“I’ve only seen him for a short sample year, but from what I’ve seen of him he’s pretty dynamic,” Mitchell said. “So if our organization decides to trade him, I imagine we’d get somebody pretty darn good for him.”