The Cardinals announced this morning that they’ve signed right-hander Phil Maton to a one-year, major league deal, as noted by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The financial terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. Left-hander Bailey Horn was designated for assignment to make room for Maton on the club’s 40-man roster, as noted by Katie Woo of The Athletic.
Maton, 32 later this month, was among the better relief arms still available on the free agent market at this late point in the calendar. Drafted in the 20th round by the Padres back in 2015, Maton will suit up with the Cardinals for his ninth MLB season and hope to continue a stretch of quality work that began with the Astros back in 2022. The first five seasons of Maton’s career saw him struggle despite solid peripherals, with a subpar 4.76 ERA in 215 1/3 innings of work across 209 appearances. He struck out 26.4% of opponents during that time while walking 9.2%. Those numbers were decent enough to keep Maton rostered with San Diego and Cleveland over the years, but he eventually wound up in Houston late in the 2021 season.
The righty’s middling results continued with the Astros through the end of 2021, but by the start of the 2022 season a switch seemed to have flipped. His 25.2% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate over the past three seasons aren’t markedly different than what they were earlier in his career, but the veteran’s results have improved drastically as he’s posted a 3.50 ERA with a 4.11 FIP in 195 2/3 innings of work across 206 games. After hitting free agency for the first time in his career prior to the 2024 season, Maton signed on with the Rays but struggled badly for the club, with a 4.58 ERA in 40 appearances for them last year. Fortunately for the right-hander, however, he was traded to the Mets for the stretch run and turned a corner, dominating to the tune of a 2.51 ERA across his final 31 appearances of the regular season.
More to come…
