{"id":334072,"date":"2025-12-09T07:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/334072\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T07:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:17:09","slug":"rays-sign-steven-matz-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/334072\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Sign Steven Matz – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rays are reportedly in agreement with free agent left-hander\u00a0Steven Matz<\/a> on a two-year contract. The signing is pending a physical, and salary terms for the VC Sports Group client have yet to be reported. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times<\/a> first reported the sides were closing in on what was likely to be a two-year contract. The Rays\u2019 40-man roster is full, so they\u2019ll need to designate someone for assignment once the contract is finalized.<\/p>\n

Matz spent the 2025 season working out of the bullpen. The 11-year big league veteran split the season between the Cardinals and Red Sox. He combined for 76 2\/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball. Matz has a long background as a starter and worked in a swing role with St. Louis as recently as 2024. He could compete for a rotation spot or work multiple innings out of Kevin Cash\u2019s bullpen.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old just wrapped up a four-year, $44MM free agent deal that he\u2019d signed with St. Louis. That didn\u2019t go as the Cardinals planned. Matz had a difficult time staying healthy. He missed most of the 2022 season to a shoulder impingement. A lat strain shelved him in the second half of the following season, and a lower back injury wiped out much of 2024.<\/p>\n

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Matz combined for just 197 1\/3 innings over the first three seasons. He posted a 4.47 ERA with an average 21.9% strikeout percentage. The Cards only gave him a pair of spot starts this year. He still frequently worked into a second inning out of the bullpen but wasn\u2019t tasked with as significant a workload. Matz managed to stay healthy and turned in arguably his best season since 2021.<\/p>\n

Over his first 55 innings, the southpaw turned in a 3.44 earned run average while striking out 20.7% of batters faced. The Cards dealt him to Boston at the deadline. His already middling strikeout rate dropped another six points with the Red Sox, though he managed to outperform his peripherals with a 2.08 ERA through 21 2\/3 innings. Matz ranked among the bottom 10 relievers (minimum 50 innings) with a 7.8% swinging strike rate. He succeeded with excellent control, issuing walks at a career-low 3.6% clip. He pitched particularly well as a specialist, holding left-handed batters to a .211\/.242\/.341 batting line in 129 plate appearances.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay has a pair of power lefty relievers in\u00a0Garrett Cleavinger<\/a> and\u00a0Mason Montgomery<\/a>. Cleavinger is quietly one of the best in the game. Montgomery has the stuff to be an impact arm in his own right, but his control remains a significant question. He still has a pair of minor league options and can bounce between Tampa Bay and Triple-A Durham. Matz provides a different look as a control specialist but has decent velocity, averaging 94.5 MPH on his sinker.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a decent amount of uncertainty in the rotation behind\u00a0Drew Rasmussen<\/a> and\u00a0Ryan Pepiot<\/a>. The Rays have\u00a0Shane McClanahan<\/a> and\u00a0Shane Baz<\/a> lined up for spots. McClanahan will be on an innings limit after consecutive missed seasons. Baz was inconsistent and is at least a theoretical trade candidate<\/a>.\u00a0Ian Seymour<\/a> is probably the in-house favorite to work as the fifth starter, but Tampa Bay is likely to add a veteran innings eater or two. It remains to be seen if the Rays will give Matz an opportunity to compete for a back-end rotation job.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays are reportedly in agreement with free agent left-hander\u00a0Steven Matz on a two-year contract. The signing is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82,16154],"class_list":{"0":"post-334072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-steven-matz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}