Rays nearing deal with reliever Maton (source)
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The Rays are on the verge of along side a important weapon to their bullpen, one who is battle-tested within the month of October.
The Rays are finalizing a take care of free-agent reliever Phil Maton, a supply has told MLB.com’s Attach Feinsand. The Rays haven’t commented on the deal.
The shapely-handed Maton had a 3.00 ERA in 68 appearances for the Astros in 2023 with a 74-to-25 strikeout-to-fling ratio.
The biggest half of Houston’s bullpen the final three seasons, Maton used to be half of the bridge to nearer Ryan Pressly.
It stays to be considered exactly how Maton will fit into a Tampa Bay bullpen that contains Pete Fairbanks, who saved 25 video games final season. The Rays are in most cases cheerful giving a pair of pitchers put alternatives and Maton has the ability and notice file to join that combine.
Not handiest has the 30-three hundred and sixty five days-extinct shapely-hander posted a 3.67 ERA in 162 reduction appearances for Houston within the conventional season, Maton has also allowed shapely one breeze in 18 postseason outings, all whereas averaging about 10 strikeouts per 9 innings. He used to be specifically efficient in 2023, combining high swing-and-miss, strikeout and mosey charges with very low exit velocities and worthy-hit charges allowed.
The principle to Maton’s success used to be his pair of breaking balls: a high-disappear curveball that averaged an elite 3,156 rpm, and a “sweeper” slider that averaged 19 inches of horizontal fracture. Those two pitches accounted for on the subject of two-thirds of Maton’s total usage, and for the first time, his curveball, not his fastball, used to be his most-extinct pitch.
Maton will wait on accumulate the void left by Robert Stephenson, who not too prolonged within the past signed with the Angels.
In 2023, the Tampa Bay bullpen ranked 2d in MLB with a 1.19 WHIP, tied for 2d with a .223 opponents’ batting average and performed fourth in strikeouts (657).
Jason Adam, Colin Poche and Shawn Armstrong will join Fairbanks and Maton as relievers that manager Kevin Cash will gape to for prime-leverage outs.
Maton, who will flip 31 subsequent month, used to be picked within the Twentieth spherical of the 2015 MLB Draft by the Padres. He has pitched in 344 video games over seven Important League seasons with the Padres, Guardians and Astros. He pitched in 12 video games exact thru the 2021 postseason when Houston won the ALCS however fell to the Braves within the World Collection.
