The Chicago Cubs and right-handed reliever Phil Maton agreed to a two-year deal Friday night, according to a source familiar with the negotiation. The news was first reported by Michael Cerami, of Bleacher Nation, on Twitter. Maton, who will turn 33 next March, gets two guaranteed years on the pact, and the Cubs will hold an option for 2028.
Having pitched for four different teams over the last two seasons, Maton is the classic peripatetic middle reliever. He comes to the Cubs off a career year with the Cardinals and Rangers, wherein he posted a 2.79 ERA and struck out 32.3% of opposing batters in 61 1/3 innings. He boasts one of the league’s highest-spin curveballs, with two-plane break and a huge velocity differential from his fastball. He’s pushed his usage rate on the curve as high as 40% in one season, and in 2025, the hook was actually his primary pitch.
Maton does not throw hard. His preferred flavor of fastball is a hard cutter that sits 90-91, which he began to feature in 2023. He works vertically with the cutter and curve from a low arm slot, and uses his sinker and sweeper to go east and west to keep hitters honest. He last walked fewer than 9% of batters in a season before the pandemic hit, but his strikeout rate generally sits north of 25% and he keeps the ball in the park well.
For no playoff-caliber team can Maton be the relief ace, but he was dazzling in 2025. He’s a good bet to continue striking out hitters at an above-average rate, even with tepid velocity, and the Cubs badly needed some swing-and-miss stability in their relief corps. His fastball shape suits what the Cubs like, and his non-traditional style brought him down into the team’s price range.
He won’t be the last move Jed Hoyer makes to reinforce the bullpen, though. Once he’s added to the 40-man roster, the Cubs will still have nine open places on it. They have to re-sign or replace the likes of Brad Keller, Andrew Kittredge, Drew Pomeranz, and Caleb Thielbar—in effect, all but one of their trusted relievers from the second half of 2025. Maton is a good head start on that, but only a start.
Maton did not make the DiamondCentric Top 50 free agents list, published earlier this week, but did appear at the tail end of two of the lists assembled by writers collaborating on that project. The most similar pitcher to him on the top 50 was Emilio Pagán, whom we projected to earn $15 million over two years. Look for Maton’s deal to fall in that price range.