Don't look now, but the St. Louis Cardinals look like... a contender? At 24-20, St. Louis is only a game behind first-place Chicago in the NL Central. The roster looks eerily similar to last season's disappointment machine, but the Cards' defense has markedly improved and the few slight tweaks John Mozeliak made have thus far paid off.
Only one free agent actually signed with the Cardinals' big-league squad this offseason: 32-year-old reliever Phil Maton. He received a one-year, $2 million contract to come home. After various stints at all corners of the MLB map, the Paducah, Ky. native — who grew up watching Cardinals games — was finally on his childhood team.
So far, Maton has delivered well above expectations, emerging as St. Louis' most dependable late-innings setup man. He has 19 appearances and 17.0 innings under his belt, logging a 3.18 ERA and 1.24 WHIP with 21 strikeouts.
While the Cardinals' bullpen has experienced its share of bumps in the road, it's starting to cohere into a remarkably dependable unit — in no small part due to Maton's stellar output.
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Cardinals bargain-bin signing Phil Maton has been integral to bullpen improvement
Maton split last season between the New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays, finishing with a 3.66 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 64.0 innings on the mound. His metrics are up across the board in St. Louis. Call it a fluke, call it that hometown glow, but Maton is clearly enjoying his time in a Cardinals uniform.
He was in the 33rd percentile for walks in 2024; Maton is in the 81st percentile right now. He was in the 47th percentile for strikeouts with New York and Tampa Bay. He's up to the 91st percentile with the Cards.
Maton has never blown hitters away with pure heat, but his average velocity is sitting more than 2 MPH faster than it was a season ago. He has altered his pitch diet ever so slightly and his command is on another level. St. Louis continues to reap the rewards.
So valuable is Maton's contract that he is starting to pop up in trade rumors. There is always a market for cost-effective relievers around the deadline and right now, St. Louis has one of the best value contracts in the league.
That doesn't mean Maton wants to leave.
"(10-year-old Maton) would have thought (playing in St. Louis) was super cool,” Maton told MLB.com. “We had all the Cardinals gear at the house, especially Mark McGwire stuff. I remember having a little red plastic Cardinals locker in my bedroom."
In fact, Maton loves St. Louis so much that the looming specter of a potential trade spooks him quite a bit.
"It's a constant reminder that this is baseball and it’s a business."
With St. Louis four games above .500 and vying for a Wild Card spot (and maybe even the division crown), there's no reason to think Maton is floating around the trade mill. If the Cardinals lose steam at any point, however, it becomes much more likely that Maton ends up on a different team — probably a contender — midseason.
Whether he finishes out the campaign in St. Louis or nets the Cardinals real value on the trade market, this signing will go down as a huge win.