Mateo had an internal brace implanted, and the flexor tendon in his non-throwing arm was repaired.
If the Baltimore Orioles are to defeat the New York Yankees and win their second consecutive American League East title, they will need to do so without veteran infielder Jorge Mateo. Mateo, who had not played since July 23 due to an elbow injury sustained in a collision with a teammate, had season-ending surgery to insert an internal brace and repair his flexor tendon in his non-throwing arm.
Mateo, 29, was having the finest offensive season of his major league career. He hit.229/.267/.401 (91 OPS+) in 68 games before the injury, with five home runs and 13 stolen bases (15 attempts). According to Baseball Reference, his services were worth around 0.8 Wins Above Replacement.
In the month or so since Mateo’s injury, the Orioles have mostly given over the keystone to rookie Jackson Holliday, baseball’s top prospect entering the season. Holliday has performed better since returning to the majors than he did the first time around, but perhaps not to the expectations raised by his name and pedigree: in 26 games, he has batted.211/.268/.422, five home homers.
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The Orioles enter Thursday with a 77-57 record, one game behind the Yankees in the AL East race. Baltimore will finish a potential World Series preview against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday before embarking on a stretch of non-contender games against the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays. The Orioles can also rest easy knowing they have three more games against the Yankees in New York during the last week.
Baltimore has a 6-4 advantage in head-to-head matchups against the Yankees. MLB eliminated tiebreaker games as part of the expanded postseason system, giving the winner of the head-to-head series an automatic edge in the event of a tie.
