(Photo: Gabe Rodriguez)
The New York Yankees hosted their Spring Training home opener on Wednesday afternoon as they took on the Detroit Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Although the Yankees don’t have much wiggle room on their Opening Day roster, Spring Training will give some of the organization’s top prospects time to shine and show that they are ready when the time comes. Wednesday’s game was just that as the Yankees battled back to defeat the Detroit Tigers 10-9, due in part to a ninth inning rally all started by young shortstop Jorge Mateo. With the Yankees down 9-8, the twenty-year-old hit a lead off triple on a fly ball off of Jason Krizan in the bottom of the ninth. Austin Romine, who is a contender for the backup catcher spot, then hit a RBI single to send Mateo home and tie the game.
Mateo is ranked at #30 in the Top 100 prospects in baseball entering the 2016 season, he was previously ranked at #87 last season. Mateo was invited as a non-roster invite to Spring Training along with fellow top prospect Aaron Judge. He started last season with Class A Charleston before his late summer promotion to Single-A Advanced Tampa. He is a talented base runner with 82 stolen bases in 2015 and had a combined .278 batting average along with 40 RBIs.
The Yankees signed Jorge Mateo as a non-drafted free agent in August 2010.
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