1 reason to love the NY Mets trade for Phil Maton, 1 reason to hate it

Shortly before their game against the Washington Nationals, the New York Mets acquired veteran reliever Phil Maton in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays. David Stearns heard Brandon Nimmo’s request for something from the day before. He wasted no time in doing something.

The Mets will trade Maton for cash or a player to be named later. They have plenty of cash, which is one of the reasons why the move is immediately well received.

How about we take a closer look at who Maton is as a pitcher? Putting aside some of the factors you can like or hate about him that affect roster construction, let’s look at one positive and one negative aspect that is specific to him as a player.

Despite some poor numbers elsewhere, Maton has developed into something of a groundball pitcher. Averaging 49.5% through his first 35.1 innings this season, he’s well above his career average of 41.5%. You’d think averaging 50% of batted balls on the ground would mean a better season, but that hasn’t been the case for Maton. He has a 4.58 ERA, which is just over a run per second inning.

Earned run average is one thing. Sometimes it can be explained away with an excuse, but Maton might actually be lucky. The 5.63 FIP suggests he should be allowing a full run more per 9 runs. The career-low 4.6 walks per 9 runs and the career-low 7.6 strikeouts per 9 runs combine to explain why the year hasn’t been so great for the veteran right-hander. We could live with one of those; a low strikeout rate would be desirable. The walks, on the other hand, will be hard to accept if that was the team’s Achilles heel in 2024.

Maton has seen better days. His 2022 and 2023 seasons with the Houston Astros were arguably his best with ERAs of 3.84 and 3.00, respectively. Both seasons included a walk rate of less than 3.5 per 9 and more than 10 strikeouts per 9.

For once, Maton has not improved since joining the Rays organization, as many of his peers seem to have. We have to hope that things are different with the Mets.