Latest news with #Maton
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cubs-Cardinals Trade Idea Sends Phil Maton to Chicago
Through 30 games, the Chicago Cubs have managed to take and maintain a first-place lead in the National League Central, but they can still improve in certain areas of the roster. The main problem is the Cubs' bullpen, which ranks fifth-worst in MLB with a 4.81 ERA. Thus far, Chicago has received subpar performances from Porter Hodge and Brad Keller, who both have an ERA above 5.00. Advertisement Righty Eli Morgan, acquired in a trade with the Cleveland Guardians in November, is on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow impingement. Closer Ryan Pressly and Julian Merryweather have been the two best-performing Cubs' relievers this season. Still, a bullpen needs more than two players to succeed throughout a long, grueling season. On Monday, Newsweek's Andrew Wright identified St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Phil Maton as a name the Cubs should target in a trade to improve the bullpen. Maton, 32, is a nine-year MLB veteran known for attacking hitters with movement on his pitches rather than high velocity. In 2025, he ranks in the 95th percentile in WHIFF rate, with opposing batters swinging and missing at his five-pitch mix 36.5 percent of the time. St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Phil Maton (88) pitches against the Minnesota Twins during the ninth inning at Busch Curry-Imagn Images He's recorded 17 strikeouts in 13.2 innings this season with the Cardinals and has walked only two of the 56 batters he's faced. Advertisement There's reason to believe Maton's success this season may be sustainable, since he's posted three consecutive seasons with an ERA+ of 109 or higher, including a 142 ERA+ in 68 games with the Houston Astros in 2023. He has just six career saves in 430 games, so Pressly's position as the Cubs' closer is safe for now. Maton is more of a middle-to-late-inning relief pitcher. As division rivals, the Cubs and Cardinals rarely facilitate trades, but a deal involving Maton would be a low-risk, high-reward move for Chicago, which is seeking its first postseason appearance since 2020. If the Cubs' bullpen continues to falter, the front office might have to make significant adjustments. Related: Cubs Make Tough Decision on 3.40 ERA Starter
USA Today
12-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Nick Maton Player Props: April 12, White Sox vs. Red Sox
Nick Maton Player Props: April 12, White Sox vs. Red Sox Nick Maton, coming off a one-hit showing in his most recent game (1-for-3), will take the field for the Chicago White Sox versus Richard Fitts and the Boston Red Sox on Saturday. First pitch is at 4:10 PM ET on CHSN and NESN. Find odds, stats, and more below to make your Nick Maton player prop bets. Maton has racked up a team-high two home runs. He has two RBI. Watch tonight's White Sox game on Fubo! Nick Maton Prop Bets and Odds Hits Prop: 0.5 hits (Over odds: -143) 0.5 hits (Over odds: -143) Home Runs Prop: 0.5 home runs (Over odds: +550) 0.5 home runs (Over odds: +550) RBI Prop: 0.5 RBI (Over odds: +250) 0.5 RBI (Over odds: +250) Runs Prop: 0.5 runs (Over odds: +125) 0.5 runs (Over odds: +125) Total Bases Prop: 0.5 total bases (Over odds: -149) 0.5 total bases (Over odds: -149) Stolen Bases Prop: 0.5 stolen bases (Over odds: +1450) How to Watch Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox Matchup: Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox Time: 4:10 PM ET 4:10 PM ET Date: Saturday, April 12, 2025 Saturday, April 12, 2025 TV Channel: CHSN and NESN CHSN and NESN Live Stream: Fubo (Watch now! - Regional restrictions may apply) Nick Maton vs. Richard Fitts Nick Maton prop bet insights In five of 12 contests this year, Maton has reached base via hit, but has yet to post a multi-hit game. Despite logging a plate appearance in 12 games this season, he has hit two home runs. Maton has scored three times this year in 12 games played (25.0%), but does not have a multi-run effort. He has tallied at least one RBI twice this year in 12 tries, but did not drive in multiple runs in either of those games. In six of 12 games this year (50.0%), Maton has struck out at least once, including two games with multiple punchouts. MLB odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds updated Saturday at 1:25 PM ET. For a full list of sports betting odds, access USA TODAY Sports Betting Scores Odds Hub. Nick Maton stats against the Red Sox Red Sox starter: Richard Fitts
USA Today
06-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Nick Maton Player Props: April 6, White Sox vs. Tigers
Nick Maton Player Props: April 6, White Sox vs. Tigers Nick Maton's Chicago White Sox take on the Detroit Tigers on April 6 at 1:40 PM ET, and will see starting pitcher Jackson Jobe on the hill. Maton had one hit in his last game, finishing 1-for-4. Find odds, stats, and more below to make your Nick Maton player prop bets. Maton has a team-best two home runs (he's added two RBI). Watch tonight's White Sox game on Fubo! Nick Maton Prop Bets and Odds Hits Prop: 0.5 hits (Over odds: -105) 0.5 hits (Over odds: -105) Home Runs Prop: 0.5 home runs (Over odds: +900) 0.5 home runs (Over odds: +900) RBI Prop: 0.5 RBI (Over odds: +325) 0.5 RBI (Over odds: +325) Runs Prop: 0.5 runs (Over odds: +210) 0.5 runs (Over odds: +210) Total Bases Prop: 0.5 total bases (Over odds: -105) How to Watch Chicago White Sox vs. Detroit Tigers Matchup: Chicago White Sox vs. Detroit Tigers Chicago White Sox vs. Detroit Tigers Time: 1:40 PM ET 1:40 PM ET Date: Sunday, April 6, 2025 Sunday, April 6, 2025 TV Channel: FDSDET and CHSN FDSDET and CHSN Live Stream: Fubo (Watch now! - Regional restrictions may apply) Nick Maton vs. Jackson Jobe Nick Maton prop bet insights Maton has a hit in three of eight games this year, but no multi-hit games. He has hit a long ball in two of the eight games he's played in this season, going deep in 9.1% of his plate appearances. Maton has scored at least a run twice this season in eight tries, but did not score multiple runs in either of those games. He has tallied at least one RBI twice this season in eight tries, but did not drive in multiple runs in either of those games. Maton has gone down on strikes four times this year in eight games played (50.0%), including one game punching out on multiple occasions. MLB odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds updated Sunday at 1:25 PM ET. For a full list of sports betting odds, access USA TODAY Sports Betting Scores Odds Hub. Nick Maton stats against the Tigers Date Opp. SP H/AB XBH HR RBI R K/BB SB 4/5/2025 Reese Olson 1-for-4 0 0 0 0 2/0 0 4/4/2025 Jack Flaherty 0-for-1 0 0 0 0 1/1 0 Tigers starter: Jackson Jobe The Tigers' Jobe (0-0) gets the ball for his second start of the year. His most recent outing came on Tuesday versus the Seattle Mariners, when the right-hander went four innings, surrendering three earned runs while giving up three hits.
New York Times
25-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Astros GM Dana Brown working to curb ‘straight shooter' tendencies: ‘You're not scouting anymore'
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Somewhere between bullish and bombastic sits Dana Brown, the antithesis of almost all of his baseball contemporaries. Those in his position often pride themselves on insulation, increasing efficiency or an Ivy League education, a few foundations around which the Houston Astros have constructed their golden era. Advertisement To prolong it, the club chose a man who has none of that. Brown is a general manager bred in a bygone era, a straight-shooting former Seton Hall outfielder who'd rather scout amateur talent than scour spreadsheets. His candor bucks convention, running against the constant cliches or coachspeak from his counterparts. 'What you get, what the fans, the media, what they see, that is 100 percent Dana,' said Andrew Ball, one of Brown's three assistant general managers. 'I think that's a great thing.' Authenticity is Brown's ethos. Rarely will he claim to have every answer or understand all of the sport's growing ways to measure success. Take, for example, Phil Maton, a reliever made for the modern game but mystifying to Brown. Maton rarely reached 90 mph but maintained a 3.00 ERA across 66 innings during the 2023 season — Brown's first in charge. 'I was like, 'Man, how is this guy going to get guys out?,' Brown says now, before launching into the reasons why: Maton's elite extension, movement and the spin rate on his breaking balls. Seeing that from a scouting eye is almost impossible, so Brown sought help from those in his front office more familiar with the advanced information. Brown started calling Maton 'the Magic Man' thereafter. 'The biggest thing there is Dana has no ego,' Ball said. 'He's really humble. He's really open to learning and he's really unafraid of asking questions. He wants to learn. He picks things up really quickly.' Brown spent 29 baseball seasons in scouting, where such bluntness is a prerequisite. Scouts' sentiments are often never heard outside of closed-door front-office meetings or conversations on a ballpark concourse. Now, at the pinnacle of his profession, Brown's boldness is broadcast across an entire city instead of inside a conference room. Two years after inheriting a World Series championship roster, Brown is the face and voice of a franchise at a crossroads, a precarious position for someone whose entire career evolved outside of the spotlight. Advertisement 'That's part of becoming more GM-like — you have to really watch what you say because it means a lot more coming from a general manager than it does (from) a VP of scouting,' said Brown, who formerly held that same position with the Atlanta Braves. 'You learn on the job like any other job, but I do wrestle with (not) being a straight shooter. I would be lying if I said I didn't.' Brown's optimism can be equal parts contagious and confounding, sometimes in total contradiction to the product on the field or how the Astros have operated across Jim Crane's 14-year ownership tenure. None of Crane's three general manager hires had ever had front-facing roles before arriving in Houston. All of them learned on the job, none with the soundbites that Brown has provided. Some of them have proven prophetic, like the decision Brown made on the team's television broadcast in 2023 to convert swingman Ronel Blanco into a starting pitcher. After starting 12-22 last season, Brown insisted that he would never sell at the trade deadline. The team won the American League West on the back of August acquisition Yusei Kikuchi. 'It's really difficult for me because I'm such a straight shooter and I wear my emotions on my sleeves at times, especially being from the Northeast,' said Brown, a proud New Jersey native. He added: 'That's just kind of how I am and that's how I was as a scout and I got to realize, look, you're not scouting anymore. You're a general manager.' His claim two years ago that Kyle Tucker 'will be a Houston Astro for his career' seemed foolish at the time and only aged worse this winter, flummoxing a fan base he was hired to please. The words of a person in charge are not forgotten — a reality Brown now must embrace. 'We're not the most experienced leadership group, but I think we're always trying to learn and go through situations on that,' said Ball. 'I don't know that it's more buttoned up, but he definitely speaks differently about things now than the first day he got the job, but it's still authentically him.' Nineteen months after insisting Tucker would never wear another uniform, Brown backtracked. His initial declaration defied all logic but did conjure memories of perhaps the boldest claim of Brown's tenure, one he hoped to predicate around the same long-term contract extensions he saw Alex Anthopoulos issue in Atlanta. Advertisement Crane's appetite for those can be fickle, but upon Brown's arrival, he famously told the owner to 'fasten your seat belt, because it's time.' The extent of that wild ride is two contract extensions worth a total of $189 million. One of the recipients, Cristian Javier, underwent Tommy John surgery last season. Having no willingness to pay Tucker and failing to approach pending free agent Framber Valdez this spring about an extension is more emblematic of how the Astros have always conducted business. 'I kind of knew the business side. I just never had to worry about it,' Brown said. 'Now, as a GM, you know the baseball side, but you have to worry that everything you do, there's a business reaction to every move we make and you have to keep that in mind.' Trading Tucker, though, is an about-face. The Astros hadn't traded a reigning All-Star since Ed Wade shipped out Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence in 2011. Brown had to convince Crane — the owner who claims the club's championship window will never close — to trade one of his team's best players. 'It was just saying, 'Look, we want to be competitive in these two worlds: We're not going to lose our edge in the present and we're going to gain more in the future by putting it all together,'' Brown said. 'That's the goal of this trade and hopefully that should be how it plays out.' Crane declined three interview requests during spring training, first following an appearance on the team's telecast, again after he sat in for an inning on the club's radio broadcast and, finally, through a team spokesman before Saturday's penultimate Grapefruit League game. 'He's really allowed me the opportunity to be a GM,' Brown said. 'You go to some organizations, there (is) a GM, a president and then you have the owner. But being able to go directly to the owner and have a conversation about what you want to do and for him to understand and have confidence in your baseball eye, I think that's a welcoming thing for me because he trusts me.' 'OK, pull up the video.' Ask around the Astros' front office, Brown says, and all of his lieutenants will laugh at that rote response. When senior director of player personnel Matt Hogan finds a player on the waiver wire or assistant general manager Gavin Dickey has the latest on a well-performing minor-leaguer, Brown offers the same response. Advertisement 'He doesn't ignore the information, but he also knows the value of what his eyes are telling him,' said Joe Espada, the manager Brown handpicked to succeed Dusty Baker. 'He asks everyone in the room what they think and he's going to make the last decision. But he is a guy that wants to see the player. He wants to see it with his own eyes that the information is matching what he sees.' There is no manual for being a general manager. That World Series champions Buster Posey and Craig Breslow now run the San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox, respectively, suggests a shift back toward a semblance of balance in baseball front offices. Brown epitomizes it, but within an organization that once positioned itself on the cutting edge. Brown has surrounded himself with a blend of lieutenants from different backgrounds. He retained both Ball and Charles Cook as assistant general managers before promoting Dickey — a longtime scout and former college player — to join them. Hogan and director of baseball operations Anthony Cacchione are crucial figures, too. 'We don't have the biggest front office in baseball, intentionally, but to do that and to do it successfully, you have to be able to say, 'Hey, one person is going to kind of take this or handle this,'' Ball said. 'It's really nice that there is that trust and he gets that. It makes me feel good to just know that your boss cares about you and supports you to kind of let you go do that and trust you to do those things.' Brown may never be called buttoned-up. He still talks fast and sheds more insight on the inner workings of a franchise than many in his position. Navigating the Astros into their next era isn't going to alter that. 'I always remind him, 'Don't change, this is who you are,'' Espada said, 'but also, let's not walk away from the information that has helped this organization be successful.'
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Phil Maton agrees to 1-year contract with Cardinals
JUPITER, Fla. — Right-handed reliever Phil Maton and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a one-year contract, the team announced. Maton was traded from Tampa Bay to the Mets on July 9 and finished 3-3 with a 3.66 ERA in 71 appearances, including 2-1 with a 2.52 ERA in 31 games for New York. He appeared in six postseason games during the Mets' run to the NL Championship Series. Maton, who turns 32 on March 25, had a career-high 18 holds last season and was unscored upon in 25 of 31 games for New York. Maton became a free agent after the Mets turned down his $7,775,000 option in favor of a $250,000 buyout. St. Louis' bullpen lost Andrew Kittredge, who became a free agent and signed with Baltimore. Maton is 19-15 with five saves and 4.16 ERA in 415 appearances over eight big league seasons with San Diego (2017-19), Cleveland (2019-21), Houston (2021-23), Tampa Bay (2024) and the Mets. Left-hander Bailey Horn was designated for assignment to make room for Maton on the 40-man roster.
