{"id":266033,"date":"2025-08-23T00:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T00:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/266033\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T00:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T00:18:10","slug":"long-islanders-steven-matz-greg-weissert-contributing-to-red-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/266033\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Islanders Steven Matz, Greg Weissert contributing to Red Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry takes center stage at the Stadium this weekend, Boston\u2019s bullpen has a distinct Long Island feel.<\/p>\n

Lefthander Steven Matz, a 34-year-old Stony Brook native, is a new member of the Red Sox after being traded by the Cardinals ahead of last month\u2019s deadline. A career starter who spent his first six seasons with the Mets, Matz has transitioned to a relief\u00a0role\u00a0\u2014 at least for now.<\/p>\n

Bay Shore\u2019s Greg Weissert, a 30-year-old righthander and former Yankee<\/a>, is enjoying a career season for the Red Sox. He was part of the trade package that brought Alex Verdugo to the Yankees in December 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matz and Weissert contributed to Boston\u2019s 6-3 win over the Yankees on Thursday night<\/a>. Weissert earned the win after pitching 1 1\/3 scoreless innings, entering in the sixth and allowing \u00a0one hit. Matz relieved Weissert and allowed\u00a0no runs and a hit in two-thirds of an inning for his ninth hold of the season.<\/p>\n

Matz and Weissert did not have any relationship before the former\u00a0joined the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were kind of talking, Long Island is starting to get on the map a little bit as far as baseball,\u201d Matz told Newsday before Friday night\u2019s game. \u201cWe got Ben Brown over there on the Cubs, Greg, myself, [Marcus]\u00a0Stroman, a bunch of guys in the league from Long Island. So it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Weissert: \u201cWe joke about it all the time, but I don’t know how many Long Islanders are even in the big leagues right now. Probably a handful, right? But to be on the same team, it\u2019s cool and he’s awesome. He’s been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mets selected\u00a0Matz<\/a>, a\u00a0former Ward Melville star<\/a>, in the second round of the 2009 MLB Draft. He made his debut on June 28, 2015, and posted a 3.68 ERA in three postseason starts as\u00a0the Mets\u00a0reached the 2015 World Series.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays traded for Matz in January 2021, and he played with fellow Ward Melville alum Anthony Kay with\u00a0Toronto. Matz signed a four-year, $44 million contract with the Cardinals in November 2021, and his time in St. Louis was filled with ups and downs. He had stints on the injured list\u00a0in each of his first three seasons with the Cardinals, missing four months with a lower back strain in 2024.<\/p>\n

Matz has remained healthy<\/a> this season and is\u00a05-2 with a 3.13 ERA, 53 strikeouts and 11 walks in 63 1\/3 innings in\u00a040 games (two starts with St. Louis in April). Matz has a 4.3% walk rate, which ranks in the 97th percentile in MLB, according to Baseball Savant.<\/p>\n

How has the transition to the bullpen been?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been good,\u201d Matz said. \u201cI feel like this year I really embraced it more. Just trying to get outs when I can. I made a couple starts this year. I\u2019ve pitched \u00a0long, I\u2019ve pitched short. So I\u2019ve done a bunch of different things this year. And ultimately I feel like with kind of where I’m at in my career, I feel like I\u2019m comfortable doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matz reached 10 years of service time in June, a milestone achievement for any major-leaguer. Fewer than 10% of players in MLB history have achieved the 10-year feat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really cool,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cThat’s always kind of an earmark for everybody that you know you want to get to 10 years. My mother-in-law kind of reminded me. When I first started dating my wife, she was like, \u2018How long do you want to play?\u2019 \u2018I want to make 10 years in the major leagues.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a good reminder of like, \u2018Hey, that’s kind of a goal we had.\u2019 So it’s a good reflection point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weissert, who went back and forth between the Bronx and Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre in 2022 and 2023, is 5-4 with a 3.00 ERA, 40 strikeouts and 17 walks in 54 innings (58 games) this season. He has three saves.<\/p>\n

Weissert has the unique viewpoint of being on both sides of the historic rivalry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from New York, the rivalry was always crazy,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a little less now than back in the day, but it’s still really cool to be able to be on both sides and play in both environments for both teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both players were expecting family at the Stadium during the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t get old,\u201d Matz said. \u201cThere’s just a different buzz in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notes & quotes:\u00a0Yankees outfielder Austin Slater (left hamstring strain) has started baseball activities. Manager Aaron Boone said Slater is \u201cstarting to turn the corner\u201d but has no timeline on when or if he will\u00a0start a rehab assignment . . . \u00a0Righthander Jonathan Loaisiga will be examined by Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday. He has been on the injured list\u00a0since Aug. 3 with right mid-back tightness and recently experienced soreness in his elbow\/triceps area.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

\n\tBen Dickson joined Newsday\u2019s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating\u00a0from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins’\u00a0teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry takes center stage at the Stadium this weekend, Boston\u2019s bullpen has a distinct…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,5528,17224,4,62,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-266033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-early","13":"tag-li-athletes","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-new-york-yankees","16":"tag-red-sox","17":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115075213518614595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}