Sad news: Following a June incident, the Orioles favorite infielder has elbow surgery that will terminate his season.

Mateo had his non-throwing arm’s flexor tendon repaired and an internal brace put in.

The Baltimore Orioles will need to win the American League East without veteran infielder Jorge Mateo if they are to defeat the New York Yankees and win the division for the second time in a row. Mateo got an elbow injury in a collision with a teammate on July 23 and had not played since. He had season-ending surgery to repair his flexor tendon in his non-throwing arm and to insert an internal brace.

The 29-year-old Mateo was having his most productive offensive season in the major leagues. He batted.229/.267/.401 (91 OPS+) with five home runs and 13 stolen bases (on 15 tries) in 68 games before the injury. Baseball Reference calculated that his efforts had been worth an estimated 0.8 Wins Above Replacement.

The Orioles have mostly given the keystone to rookie Jackson Holliday, the best prospect in all of baseball going into the season, in the month and a half since Mateo went down. Holliday, who has batted in 26 games since returning to the majors, has done better than he did in his initial stint, albeit maybe not to the level expected given his reputation and pedigree.with five home runs, 211/.268/.422.

With a 77-57 record going into Thursday, the Orioles trail the Yankees by one game in the race for the AL East championship. Baltimore will play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday to conclude a possible World Series preview before starting a run of games against the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays, all of whom are non-contenders. The fact that the Orioles will play three more games in New York against the Yankees over the last week gives them further peace of mind.

When the two teams play each other, Baltimore has the upper hand 6-4. As part of the expanded postseason system, MLB eliminated tiebreaker games, therefore in the case of a tie, the victor of the head-to-head series will automatically advance.