Phil Maton has a new baseball home for the 2025 season — the St. Louis Cardinals. He serves as an unfortunate trivia answer as the club’s lone veteran free agent signing (for now.) Maton joins the Cardinals likely as the team’s middle reliever, a role he’s filled throughout his career.
We have signed RHP Phil Maton to a one-year contract.
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) March 13, 2025
Maton had a 3.66 ERA in a combined 71 games for the Mets and Rays in the 2024 season. pic.twitter.com/68M8I6HNoh
Maton was drafted in the 20th round of the 2015 Major League Baseball Draft by the San Diego Padres. He was called up in 2017 as a middle reliever, where he had a 4.19 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 43 innings over 46 games.
The next season, he was traded to Cleveland, where he went 3–3 with 4.57 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 21.2 innings pitched. Last season, Maton split time between the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets, where he posted a 3.66 ERA in 71 appearances.
His most successful period came as a member of the Houston Astros. On June 15, 2022, Maton threw an immaculate inning — an inning where he only needed nine total pitches to retire all three batters. Unfortunately, Maton would break his hand following a locker punch and miss the Astros’ World Series run, but would still get a ring for his efforts.
Phil Maton signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Cardinals. He has two brothers — Nick, who plays shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles, and Jacob, a pitcher for the Texas Rangers’ High-A affiliate Hub City Spartanburgers.