Oakland Athletics: A position battle for the ages

The Oakland Athletics have a positional battle this spring training that teams should watch closely. Former top prospects Franklin Barreto and Jorge Mateo are out of options and there’s only room for one.

Spring Training is underway and everyone is getting ready for a great 2020 season. Roster spot and playing time battles are nothing new in spring training but there is an interesting battle brewing in camp for the Oakland Athletics. Rebuilding teams should watch closely because they may get a crack at a roster crunch casualty.

In one corner, you have the former top prospect and soon to be 24-year-old Franklin Barreto who has yet to turn his prospect stardom into MLB success. Barreto has only been able to muster a .189/.220/.378 (57 wRC+), with a 40% K rate (!!) and -0.4 fWAR so far in his career. Barreto has displayed an average exit velocity but inexplicably hit the ball on the ground at nearly 60% of the time in 2019.

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In the other, you have another top prospect whose stock has fallen on his trip through the minors, 24-year-old Jorge Mateo. Acquired from the Yankees in the Sonny Gray trade, Mateo has 80-grade speed, above-average raw power, but can’t take that power into games evidenced by his 69 and 96 wRC+ at the AAA level.

Both players also play SS/2B and the Oakland Athletics have considered using them in the outfield grass. More importantly, both players are out of minor league options so these players have to make the MLB roster or be exposed to waivers for another team to claim. Sure both players have their warts, but they are still young players figuring it out.

If I had a guess, Barreto would be the guy with the inside track since he has already made it to the MLB level where he’s shown flashes of being able to hit MLB pitching. Both have question marks but Mateo still has plenty to prove in his bat.

Still, if Mateo can be a good defender at SS and a potentially elite defender in CF, that is still a very valuable piece. Billy Hamilton and Jerrod Dyson have posted average or better seasons with blazing speed and defense with a below-average offense. Terrance Gore has never hit and he’s still getting deals to steal bases in the postseason.

That’s why teams should be watching closely because the Oakland Athletics is competitive now and they don’t want to carry redundant pieces on the MLB roster. The team can carry one of Barreto and Mateo, not both so in a few weeks, Oakland will start searching for trade partners for one of the two. Barreto has just over a year of service time while Mateo has never been in the big leagues.

The Philadelphia Phillies once took a shot on an infielder in the Rule V draft and it turned out to be Odubel Herrera who was solid find before he got suspended. For a team without expectations like the Orioles, Giants, Tigers, Mariners, or Marlins, one of these players could use 500 ABs to see if they are for real.

Both players are only 24 and if they turn out to be good, they will be entering their prime for any team’s contention window. For the cost of a low-level minor leaguer, some team is going to get an MLB ready asset to dawn their uniform. Whether its Mateo or Barreto that will be changing jerseys, some rebuilding team could be finding another piece of its contending puzzle.