Jorge Mateo didn’t stay a Brave for long, but he’s already giving the Rays exactly the kind of moment that makes a front office pause.
Last night, Mateo launched a home run for Tampa Bay that left the bat at 101.7 MPH with a 31 degree launch angle and carried 406 feet. It was a no-doubter.
Since joining the Rays on August 13, after being designated for assignment and later released on August 9, he has 2 hits and a stolen base in 4 games. One of those hits mattered a lot.
Atlanta, meanwhile, moved on after the trade deadline and decided Mauricio Dubon, Lane Thomas, Mike Yastremski and Jim Jarvis would handle the needs in left field and at shortstop. The results at shortstop since August 3 tell the story: the Braves are 29th in wRC+, 29th in WAR, and dead last in OBP and wOBA.
Defensively, they sit 17th. The glove has been passable.
The bat has not.
Mateo’s overall profile is pretty clear. He had a strong 2022 with Baltimore, but as of last night he carried a career 76 wRC+ with 35 home runs across 1550+ plate appearances.
He’s a defense-first player who can move around the infield, and the projections had him just a hair above replacement level. That feels about right, especially after his 2025.
Atlanta did give him a shot. He played five straight games from June 19-24 and produced one hit with four strikeouts in 11 plate appearances.
He got another five-game look from June 30 through July 6, and that stretch brought two singles and six strikeouts in 15 plate appearances. After that, the Braves seemed to move on, especially once Jim Jarvis got hot.
Jarvis is the next name in the mix, and the Braves are sticking with him for now. He posted a 132 wRC+ in 348 plate appearances at Gwinnett, and he hit six home runs there, which is enough for Atlanta to believe there may be more power coming. For a club that has talked about playing the kids, this is the path it’s taking.
That leaves Ha-Seong Kim as the bigger mystery. He dealt with a hand injury over the offseason, struggled badly when he first returned, spent more time on the Injured List, and then wound up at the Complex and Triple-A Gwinnett. The Braves seem to be betting on the version of Kim they saw last September, and maybe, with enough time, he can look like that again in September and hopefully October.
For now, though, the Braves are going with Jarvis. And Mateo’s quick burst in Tampa Bay is a reminder that the margin on these roster calls can disappear in one swing.
In Other News...
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To create that opening, Atlanta also moved on from Tyler Kinley, designating the reliever for assignment and clearing him from the active roster. Kinley had been beaten by the long ball this season, and now his next stop will be the waiver wire, a sign the Braves are willing to shake up the bullpen picture rather than let the issue linger. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Shortstop Problem Keeps Getting Harder To Ignore
Ha-Seong Kims first season in Atlanta has turned into a far tougher watch than the Braves expected, with the shortstop struggling through one of the coldest offensive stretches in the game after entering the year with real hopes of stabilizing a position the club has had to piece together. His difficulties have been compounded by injuries, first from a slip on ice in January and then from a finger issue that flared up again in June, leaving the Braves to keep searching for any kind of steady presence from the middle of the infield.
Even with Kim scuffling, Atlanta has found enough production from other players to keep the shortstop spot from becoming a full-blown emergency. Still, the longer his rough stretch goes on, the harder it is to ignore what the Braves are dealing with there, especially since the team needs a cleaner answer at a position that touches so many parts of the defense and lineup. [Read more 🡒]