The Mets have acquired right-hander Phil Maton from the Rays, per bulletins from each golf equipment. The Rays will obtain a participant to be named later or money issues. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns stated the membership is taking up all of Maton’s remaining wage, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com on X. The Mets designated left-hander Joey Lucchesi for task to get Maton onto their 40-man roster. The Rays recalled right-hander Manuel Rodríguez to take Maton’s place on their energetic roster.
Maton, 31, signed with the Rays as a free agent within the offseason. The 2 sides agreed to a one-year deal with a $6.5MM assure, within the type of a $6.25MM wage and a $250K buyout on a $7.75MM membership possibility for 2025.
Up to now, that deal hasn’t performed out the way in which the Rays had hoped. Maton has tossed 35 1/3 innings, permitting 4.58 earned runs per 9. He has struck out simply 19.7% of batters confronted whereas giving out walks at an 11.8% clip. His 49.5% floor ball fee is powerful however he’s additionally allowed six residence runs on the yr, a fee of 16.2% per fly ball.
That efficiency is considerably worse than what Maton supplied in latest seasons. From 2020 via 2023, with Cleveland and Houston, he tossed 220 innings with a 3.93 ERA, 27.8% strikeout fee, 9.2% stroll fee and 40.4% floor ball fee. He was additionally fairly good at avoiding harm, along with his common exit velocity being among the many finest within the league in his profession.
The Mets are basically shopping for low on this deal, getting a veteran reliever with out giving up any prospect expertise. Maybe that may change if the PTBNL seems to be a participant of significance, however they could be successfully shopping for Maton.
The bullpen has been the most important subject for the Mets this season. Their relievers have a collective 4.16 ERA, which is within the backside half of the league. A few their higher relievers have been misplaced to season-ending elbow surgical procedures, with Brooks Raley and Drew Smith each completed for the yr. Sean Reid-Foley and Shintaro Fujinami are additionally on the injured listing resulting from shoulder points.
Regardless of these bullpen struggles, the membership has stayed within the playoff race. They’re presently 44-45, simply 2.5 video games again of the Padres for the ultimate Wild Card spot. It was reported final week that the membership was going into the deadline with a purchaser’s mentality and will deal with bullpen assist, with this transfer becoming into that framing.
Clearly, the Mets might be banking on Maton’s struggles this yr being a little bit of a blip and he’s already proven some constructive indicators of a turnaround. After a four-run outing on June 9, he was sitting on an ERA of 6.56. However over the previous month, he has solely allowed one earned run in 12 innings, placing out 11 opponents whereas giving out only one stroll. Even when he can’t totally preserve that stage of dominance, it’s not unreasonable to anticipate one thing higher than his season-long numbers.
For the Rays, they’ve been doing a little modest promoting of late, although nothing that might essentially tank their probabilities of competing right here in 2024. They flipped starter Aaron Civale to the Brewers, netting a prospect and a few value financial savings. However that didn’t actually downgrade the rotation as they had been in a position to name up Shane Baz to take Civale’s rotation spot. They’re 44-46 and 5.5 video games again within the playoff race, giving them an opportunity of climbing again into it.
Now they’ve been in a position to shed a bit extra money, eliminating a participant that has largely been underperforming on the season, latest sizzling streak however. The Rays are usually fairly good at discovering or creating relievers and Rodríguez might fill in for Maton, as he has a 2.79 ERA within the majors this yr and a 1.09 mark in Triple-A.
Talking of that cash, the Mets might be taking up greater than the Rays are saving, because of the aggressive stability tax. Maton remains to be owed about $2.74MM on his wage, in addition to the $250K buyout. The Rays will scrub that from their books however the Mets are a third-time CBT payor and effectively over the fourth and last tax threshold. Which means they’re paying a 110% tax on any further spending, so might be really paying round $6MM to get Maton on the membership for the ultimate few months of the season.
Underneath proprietor Steve Cohen, the Mets have been fairly unafraid of spending cash and are as soon as once more flexing some monetary muscle to improve the membership. The Mets have been strolling a superb line since about this time final yr, seeking to hold the large league membership in rivalry with out considerably harming the pipeline of younger expertise within the farm system and in addition making an attempt to keep away from including long-term prices to their ledger. They nonetheless spent cash within the offseason however restricted themselves to short-term offers and this transfer is basically a midseason model of that.
The price is primarily monetary however additionally they might lose Lucchesi. The lefty made one spot begin for the large league membership this yr however has primarily been saved on optionally available task. He has made 15 Triple-A begins this yr with a 4.20 earned run common, 17.9% strikeout fee, 9.7% stroll fee and 53.6% floor ball fee.
Lucchesi is an honest depth possibility however he could have been on the highway to getting squeezed off the roster anyway. He’s in his last possibility yr and can subsequently be out of choices subsequent yr. The Mets have additionally had improved rotation depth because the season has gone alongside. David Peterson and Kodai Senga every began the season on the injured listing however Peterson has since returned and Senga lately began a rehab task. The Mets have additionally seen Christian Scott bounce up from the minors and clutch a rotation spot.
The present rotation consists of Scott, Peterson, Luis Severino, Jose Quintana and Sean Manaea, with Senga on his means again. José Buttó and Adrian Houser are presently within the massive league bullpen however both may very well be thought-about rotation depth and the membership additionally has Tylor Megill on optionally available task. That’s sufficient beginning depth that the membership is reportedly contemplating buying and selling somebody from that group whereas nonetheless making an attempt to compete right here in 2024, very similar to the Rays did with the aforementioned Civale deal.
Whether or not that involves fruition or not, Lucchesi was largely buried in that rotation image. The Mets have bumped him off the roster and can now have 5 days to see if they’ll work out a commerce. DFA limbo can final for per week, however the waiver course of takes 48 hours.
The lefty has some observe file as a viable massive league starter, as he posted an ERA simply over 4.00 with the Padres in 2018 and 2019, logging 130 innings or extra in each of these seasons. He then struggled in 2020 and obtained flipped to the Mets as a part of the Joe Musgrove commerce in January of 2021. He required Tommy John surgical procedure that summer season and missed many of the 2021-2022 seasons. He returned to the mound final yr and his outcomes had been pretty similar to this yr. He was principally saved on optionally available task and posted a 4.74 ERA in Triple-A.
Maybe a membership in want of some beginning depth will take a flier on Lucchesi since he might be optioned for the rest of this yr and may also be retained past this season by way of arbitration. However as talked about, he might be out of choices subsequent yr and could have much less roster flexibility going ahead. If he had been to clear waivers, he might reject an outright task by advantage of getting greater than three years of service time. However since he has lower than 5 years, electing free company would imply strolling away from the remainder of his $1.65MM wage. In that occasion, he would probably settle for an outright task and keep on with the Mets as non-roster depth.
