The Pink Sox have already signed two free agent relievers to main league offers this offseason: veteran nearer Aroldis Chapman and journeyman Justin Wilson. What’s extra, Liam Hendriks, one other star nearer, needs to be again within the ’pen after lacking your complete 2024 season attributable to damage. Nonetheless, Boston’s chief baseball officer Craig Breslow not too long ago recognized the bullpen as an space he’s trying to additional enhance. It is sensible; Pink Sox relievers ranked twenty fourth in ERA and twentieth in SIERA final season, whereas ending with the second-most blown saves within the AL – and that was earlier than dropping Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin to free company.
Thus, Chris Cotillo of MassLive studies the Pink Sox have “checked in on an extended, lengthy record” of names in pursuit of bullpen upgrades. That contains Tanner Scott, Jeff Hoffman, A.J. Minter, Carlos Estévez, Tommy Kahnle, and Andrew Kittredge. On Wednesday, Cotillo added Phil Maton to that cohort.
Maton, 32 in March, is coming off an up-and-down season break up between the Rays and Mets. The precise-hander struggled in Tampa Bay after signing a one-year, $6.5MM contract (with a membership choice for 2025) final offseason. Over 40 video games and 35 1/3 innings with the Rays, he pitched to a 4.58 ERA and 4.52 SIERA. By the tip of his transient tenure in Tampa Bay, his strikeout charge was sitting at a career-low and his stroll charge at a career-high. Regardless of the best groundball charge of his profession, he was struggling to stop runs.
But, after a midseason commerce to the Mets that was little greater than a wage dump on the Rays’ half, Maton bounced again. Throughout 31 appearances for New York, he tossed 28 2/3 innings with a 2.51 ERA and a couple of.97 SIERA. His strikeout charge rose to 26.5% – the identical above-average degree it was at in 2022 and ’23. In the meantime, his 5.3% stroll charge was decrease than ever. Though his groundball charge dropped considerably, he gave up only one residence run to the 113 batters he confronted, thanks largely to a a lot decrease common exit velocity and barrel charge.
Regardless of Maton’s profitable denouement in Queens, the Mets selected to not train their $7.75MM choice for his providers in 2025. Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a cause to assume he’ll have bother discovering a serious league deal elsewhere, though it would most likely include a decrease wage. He has already been linked to the Blue Jays this winter, and the Pink Sox are the second workforce recognized to have curiosity.
By the tip of the 2024 season, Maton’s general numbers had been completely respectable: a 3.66 ERA and three.82 SIERA in 64 IP. It marked his third consecutive marketing campaign with an ERA underneath 4 and his fourth surpassing 60 innings of labor. Since his first full season in 2020, Maton has a 3.87 ERA, 3.54 SIERA, and a 26.7% strikeout charge in 294 video games. In that point, he ranks among the many prime 10 MLB relievers in appearances and innings pitched. He is probably not a dominant, high-leverage arm, however there’s actually worth in a reliever who stays on the sphere and constantly gives common to barely above-average efficiency. To that time, the Pink Sox have already got a number of high-ceiling back-end hurlers in Chapman, Hendriks, and Justin Slaten. What they may use, nevertheless, is a dependable, middle-inning arm to boost the bullpen’s flooring. Maton may actually be that man.
