for minor-league infielder Jesus Merchan.
It's an okay, in that Mateo's probably better than Jose Mesa. Like Mesa, he has an ugly incident in his past, and much more recently than Joe Table: in May, Mateo was arrested for spousal abuse. The Mariners demoted him to triple-A afterwards, and he has pitched very well for Tacoma: 32.2 IP, 24 H, 2 BB, 28 K, 0.83 ERA.
Merchan, 26, is enjoying a career year in the minors. He was promoted from AA Reading to AAA Ottawa earlier today. For the year, he's hitting .332 with 8 homers and a .405 OBP. Last year with the R-Phils, Merchan was a much less exciting .277/.319/.365, so it's unlikely that we gave up a future star here.