New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has kept tabs on veteran reliever Phil Maton for quite some time.
On Tuesday night, he got him, swinging a deal with the Rays after “talking with Tampa for a couple weeks,” for cash considerations and a player to be named later to end a pursuit that began during the winter.
The 31-year-old had struggled in his first year with the Rays, going 1-2 with a 4.58 ERA. A groundball pitcher whose success is predicated on getting weak contact, Maton got off to a disastrous start in 2024 by surrendering eight runs in his first eight appearances (six innings).
His last 32 appearances, however, have been significantly better to the tune of a 3.07 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 29.1 innings. He’s been even better over his last 11 games, allowing a single run on six hits in 12 innings of work.
That stretch is what Stearns expected to see from Maton, who posted a 3.00 ERA with the Houston Astros last season and initially piqued the PBO’s interest.
“He’s been a very consistent reliever pitching in a high-leverage environment, big games in Houston,” Stearns said. “He got off to a rougher start this year and we think some of the adjustments he’s made over the last month or so — throwing a few more strikes, some usage adjustments — have led to some better results and we’re happy to bring him into our pen.”
Maton will be added into the mix of a bullpen that finds itself in perilous standing nearly every night and appears to be the largest potential saboteur of the Mets’ season as they attempt to stay in the thick of the NL Wild Card race.
The bullpen narrowly avoided collapse on Tuesday night when after being staked to a 6-0 lead entering the eighth inning, Adam Ottavino and Reed Garrett yielded five runs — though New York would narrowly pull out a 7-5 victory.
“[Maton] is a piece we think, today, helps our bullpen and helps our team and we’re going to continue to see what is out there and moves that may make sense for us and continue to learn about our team in the coming weeks,” Stearns said. “It’s just about trying to do what we can to put the best team on the field that we possibly can. We’ve tried to be as proactive as possible throughout the course of the year, incrementally upgrading where we can and this is another example of it.”
