Finally a move: Cardinals ink righty reliever to bolster struggling spring bullpen
On Thursday morning, the St. Louis Cardinals shed the ignominious distinction of having been the only team not to sign a major league free agent since the end of the 2024 season by inking veteran right-handed reliever Phil Maton to a one-year deal.
Maton, who turns 32 just before opening day, is a graduate of Chatham-Glenwood high school in the Springfield metro area. He provided 64 innings across 71 regular season appearances for the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets in 2024, posting a 3.66 ERA and recording 60 strikeouts. He allowed four homers in six playoff appearances for the Mets, but was a strong playoff contributor for the Houston Astros in 2021 and 2023.
As the Cardinals opened camp in Florida in February, they did so with a commitment to working through internal bullpen options before determining whether outside help would be necessary. To date, the pitching staff has gotten through spring relatively healthy; only lefty Zack Thompson (lat strain) is currently slated to open the year on the injured list, and he was a fringe candidate to make the team out of spring.
Effectiveness, though, has been a question for some of the options the Cardinals were considering.
Veteran Nick Anderson, in camp on a minor league deal, has allowed nine hits and six earned runs in 4 ⅓ spring innings, though he has recorded five strikeouts. Opposing hitters are batting .450 against Anderson this spring, and his pitches have not shown the sort of action the Cardinals were hoping to see him reclaim from his best days, pre-injury, with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Anderson is scheduled to make $1.1 million if he makes the Cardinals’ opening day roster, and has an out clause which is standard among veteran minor league free agents which would allow him to depart for another club if notified that he won’t make the team.
Maton’s arrival does not necessarily guarantee that he will be filling Anderson’s spot.
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak told reporters in Florida on Thursday morning that lefty Matthew Liberatore, who has put up strong results as a starter this spring, will indeed open the year in the bullpen. That slots Liberatore alongside Ryan Fernandez, Ryan Helsley and JoJo Romero as locks to start the year in St. Louis.
John King, who made 56 appearances for the Cardinals last season, has had one rough outing among his six in spring games, and is another very strong candidate to make the roster. King, though, does have one minor league option remaining, and Liberatore’s strong performance and ability to cover multiple innings may put the squeeze on some of his opportunities. Despite making his debut in the team’s fourth game of the season last year in Los Angeles, King did not break camp in the big leagues, and was instead recalled after Riley O’Brien suffered a flexor strain in his season debut.
O’Brien is among a group which also includes Gordon Graceffo, Kyle Leahy, Ryan Loutos, Roddery Muñoz and Chris Roycroft vying for precious roster spots to start the season. With Maton having gone through a normal spring progression at a facility in Arizona and proclaiming himself ready to hit the ground running, he joins the group of roster locks. That leaves five spots accounted for and three to be earned among the group of young righties, King and Anderson.
Each of the players in that group – as well as Fernandez and King – has minor league options available, and the Cardinals expect to avail themselves of the Memphis Shuttle more often this season than in years past. Indeed, it would be a surprise if each of those pitchers didn’t provide bullpen innings for the Cardinals at some point this season, and the timing of those assignments could well depend on specific matchups for specific points in the schedule.
Roycroft has been the standout among the bunch in spring training, as he’s yet to allow a run over five innings of work, striking out five. On a pure performance basis, he would be difficult to exclude from the group to start the season. So too would Leahy, yet to allow a run in six innings spread over four appearances. Leahy also possesses the ability to last for multiple bullpen innings from the right side, and would seemingly be the best choice as the team’s long reliever given Liberatore’s likely posting in high leverage assignments.
Maton’s experience likely will see him receive opportunities to cover some of the leverage innings previously handled by the departed Andrew Kittredge, splitting that setup role with Fernandez. It’s an opportunity for a pitcher who grew up a Cardinals fan in central Illinois to handle headline innings for his favorite team, and it allows the Cardinals the ability to soften some of the innings demand on their young pitchers.
If Maton performs well, and the team around him does not, he also would be an attractive trade deadline piece, allowing the Cardinals to add further assets in the midst of a roster reset. In the short term, though, his job will be to get outs, and it took all winter for St. Louis to be sure that he is the right man for it.
