Mets acquire right-hander Phil Maton Rays, according to announcements from both clubs. The Rays will receive a player to be named later or cash considerations. Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said the club is assuming all of Maton’s remaining salary, according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo on X. The Mets’ designated left-hander Joey Lucchesi to get the assignment to add Maton to their 40-man roster. The Rays recalled the right-hander Manuel Rodriguez to take Maton’s place on their active roster.
Maton, 31, signed with the Rays as a free agent this offseason. The two sides agreed to a one-year deal with $6.5 million guaranteed, in the form of a $6.25 million salary and a $250,000 buyout option on a $7.75 million club option for 2025.
So far, this affair hasn’t gone the way the Rays hoped. Maton has pitched 35 1/3 innings, allowing 4.58 earned runs per nine. He’s struck out just 19.7 percent of the batters he’s faced while walking at an 11.8 percent clip. His 49.5 percent ground ball rate is solid, but he’s also allowed six home runs this year, a 16.2 percent fly ball rate.
That performance is significantly lower than Maton’s in recent seasons. From 2020-23, with Cleveland and Houston, he pitched 220 innings with a 3.93 ERA, a 27.8% strikeout rate, a 9.2% walk rate, and a 40.4% ground ball rate. He was also quite adept at avoiding damage, with his average exit velocity among the best in the league over his career.
The Mets are essentially buying low in this deal, getting a veteran reliever without giving up any promising talent. That may change if the PTBNL proves to be a significant player, but they could effectively acquire Maton.
The bullpen has been the Mets’ biggest problem this season. Their relievers have a collective 4.16 ERA, which puts them in the bottom half of the league. A few of their top relievers have been lost to season-ending elbow surgeries, including Brooks Raley And Drew Smith both are made for the year. Sean Reid-Foley And Shintaro Fujinami are also on injured reserve with shoulder problems.
Despite these struggles in the bullpen, the club has remained in the playoff race. They currently sit at 44-45, just 2.5 games behind the Padres for the final wild-card spot. It was reported last week that the club was approaching the deadline with a buyer’s mentality and could focus on helping the bullpen, with this move fitting into that mix.
Clearly, the Mets are counting on Maton’s struggles this year to not be too long, and he’s already shown positive signs of a turnaround. After a four-run outing on June 9, he had a 6.56 ERA. But over the last month, he’s allowed just one earned run in 12 innings, striking out 11 and walking just one. Even if he can’t fully maintain that level of dominance, it’s not unreasonable to expect something better than his season numbers.
For the Rays, they’ve made some modest sales lately, but nothing that would necessarily hurt their chances of competing here in 2024. They traded their starter Aaron Civale to the Brewers, which allowed them to gain a prospect and save some money. But it didn’t really downgrade the rotation, because they were able to call Shane Baz to take Civale’s spot in the rotation. They are 44-46 and 5.5 games out of the playoff race, giving them a chance to climb back into contention.
They were now able to shed some more money by getting rid of a player who has largely underperformed this season, despite his recent hot streak. The Rays are generally pretty good at finding or developing relievers, and Rodriguez could replace Maton, as he has a 2.79 ERA in the major leagues this year and 1.09 in Triple-A.
Speaking of that money, the Mets are going to have to take on more than the Rays save, thanks to the Competitive Balance Tax. Maton still owes about $2.74 million on his salary, plus the $250,000 buyout. The Rays will wipe that off their books, but the Mets are a third-largest payer of CBT and are well over the fourth and final tax threshold. That means they pay a 110% tax on any additional spending, so they’ll actually pay about $6 million to bring Maton into the clubhouse for the final months of the season.
Under Steve Cohen, the Mets have not been afraid to spend money and have once again shown financial flexibility to improve the club. The Mets have been walking a tightrope since about this time last year, looking to keep the major league club in contention without significantly hurting the farm system’s young talent pool and also trying to avoid adding long-term costs to their balance sheet. They still spent money in the offseason, but limited themselves to short-term deals and this move is essentially a midseason version of that.
The cost is primarily financial, but they could also lose Lucchesi. The left-hander has made one spot start for the major league club this year but has been kept mostly on optional assignment. He has made 15 starts in Triple-A this year with a 4.20 ERA, 17.9% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 53.6% ground ball rate.
Lucchesi is an intriguing option, but he may have been on the verge of being cut anyway. He’s in his final option year and won’t have any options next year. The Mets also improved their rotation depth as the season progressed. David Peterson And Kodai Senga Each began the season on the injured list, but Peterson has since returned and Senga recently began a rehab assignment. The Mets have also seen Christian Scott jump out of the minor leagues and take a spot in the rotation.
The current rotation consists of Scott, Peterson, Luis Severino, Jose Quintana And Sean Manaeawith Senga on the way back. Jose Butto And Adrien Houser are currently in the major league bullpen, but either could be considered rotation depth and the club also has Tylor Megill on optional assignment. That’s enough starting depth that the club would consider trading someone from that group while trying to compete here in 2024, much like the Rays did with the aforementioned Civale deal.
Whether it comes to fruition or not, Lucchesi has been largely buried in this rotation. The Mets removed him from the roster and will now have five days to see if they can negotiate a trade. DFA limbo can last a week, but the waiver process takes 48 hours.
The left-hander has some history as a viable major league starter, as he posted an ERA just over 4.00 with the Padres in 2018 and 2019, logging 130 or more innings in both seasons. He then struggled in 2020 and was traded to the Mets as part of the Joe Musgrove He was traded in January 2021. He had Tommy John surgery that summer and missed most of 2021-22. He returned to the mound last year and his numbers were pretty comparable to this year. He was kept mostly on optional assignment and posted a 4.74 ERA in Triple-A.
Perhaps a club in need of some starting depth will take a risk on Lucchesi since he can be optioned for the remainder of this year and can also be retained beyond this season via arbitration. But as mentioned, he will be out of options next year and will have less roster flexibility going forward. If he were to clear waivers, he could decline a direct assignment by virtue of having more than three years of service time. But since he has less than five years of service time, choosing free agency would mean giving up the remainder of his $1.65 million salary. In that case, he would likely take a direct assignment and remain with the Mets as non-roster depth.