Jorge Mateo will be back with the Orioles in 2025, and he could stick around for another year.

The Orioles on Tuesday announced that they avoided arbitration with the utility player, agreeing to terms for the 2025 season with a club option for 2026. Mateo will make $3.55 million in 2025, a source with direct knowledge of the agreement confirmed to The Baltimore Sun.

Mateo was the lone of the Orioles’ 12 arbitration-eligible players who did not agree to a 2025 salary ahead of MLB’s deadline earlier this month. After the two sides formally exchanged proposed salary figures, they avoided an arbitration hearing — a process that can be damaging to a player’s relationship with the ballclub — by announcing the deal Tuesday.

MLB Trade Rumors projected Mateo to make $3.2 million in his final year of arbitration. If the Orioles don’t pick up his club option next offseason, Mateo will become a free agent.

Mateo, one of MLB’s fastest players, joined the Orioles in 2021 as a former top prospect seeking to establish himself in the big leagues. He was one of the best defensive shortstops in 2022 and has been a relied-upon role player — despite his offensive struggles — over the past two seasons.

The 29-year-old missed the final half of the 2024 season because of a dislocated elbow that required surgery. He is expected to be ready for opening day.

Mateo’s role on the Orioles will likely be as a super utility player rather than a starter after he spent months as Baltimore’s main second baseman last year — a role Jackson Holliday is expected to fill in 2025. Mateo’s ability to play the outfield and middle infield makes him a valuable bench asset for manager Brandon Hyde, who often makes late-game substitutions to bolster his defense.

As one of MLB’s youngest teams, the Orioles had 12 arbitration-eligible players who were due pay raises in 2025, including some in line for large bumps as they entered their first arbitration year. Arbitration is a pay raise system for players who have established themselves as big leaguers but have yet to spend enough time in the major leagues to become free agents. Eligible players have at least three years of MLB service time but fewer than the six necessary to hit free agency.

In total, the Orioles brought back the following players through arbitration: outfielder Cedric Mullins; catcher Adley Rutschman; relievers Gregory Soto and Keegan Akin; starting pitchers Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Trevor Rogers and Kremer; and infielders Emmanuel Rivera, Ramón Urías, Ryan Mountcastle and Mateo. The only arbitration-eligible player the Orioles didn’t bring back is reliever Jacob Webb, who was nontendered in November and has since signed with the Texas Rangers.

Last year, the Orioles had 18 such players whose combined salaries totaled approximately $68 million. That made up more than two-thirds of the team’s payroll, which ranked 26th of 30 MLB teams for the Orioles’ sixth straight year in the bottom five. The total amount given to their arbitration-eligible players this year is $45.5 million to mark an approximately $17.9 million raise for those players combined. The total is much less than 2024’s because Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander hit free agency this winter and Austin Hays was traded at last year’s deadline.

Most of the Orioles’ highest-paid players last season were eligible for arbitration, including Burnes, Santander, Hays and Mullins. That will be different in 2025, as the top of Baltimore’s payroll features players the club acquired over the past year: Zach Eflin ($18 million), Tyler O’Neill ($16.5 million), Charlie Morton ($15 million) and Tomoyuki Sugano ($13 million).

Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.