The San Diego Padres pulled off an under-the-radar trade last week, acquiring former Oakland Athletics top prospect Jorge Mateo for a player to be named later.
Unfortunately for the 25-year-old infielder, he’s not going to be able to join the Padres soon.
Jorge Mateo becomes latest player to test positive for COVID-19
As Major League Baseball continues to struggle with getting test results relating to the virus, Mateo will be away from the Padres as he remains in isolation.
The The Dominican Republic native will have to test negative twice 24 hours apart in order to join his new team.
It’s not yet known when Mateo contracted the virus. Though, current A’s star pitcher Jesús Luzardo has also recently tested positive for COVID-19.
How does this impact Mateo’s chances of making the Padres’ roster?
It’s not great. At least initially, it seemed that the former top prospect was almost guaranteed to break camp with the Padres. Mateo hit .289 with 19 homers, 78 RBI and a minor-league high 11 triples for Oakland’s top affiliate in Las Vegas last season.
The Padres are slated to open their regular season July 24 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. This doesn’t give Mateo much room to prove himself to his new team.
MLB COVID-19 testing issues
Teams are extremely upset about how long it is taking for players to receive their results since testing started late last month. The turnaround has not been great.
We’ve recently seen teams shut down training due to the backlog in receiving results. This can’t continue into the regular season. That’s for sure.