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<\/p>\nST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 After Tuesday\u2019s victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, Phil Maton was hunched over an iPad, watching his delivery and searching for answers. For the second game in a row, Maton had struggled, and he\u2019s poring over every detail to try and fix what\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n
On Monday, after entering a game the Chicago Cubs trailed by one \u2014 an unusual situation for someone who is supposed to be a high-leverage reliever \u2014 Maton allowed a walk and a two-run homer. The next evening, Maton came into a blowout and gave up two runs on three hits, including a rocket double.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just extremely frustrating,\u201d Maton said. \u201cTrying to get my delivery back to where it needs to be. Doing that while still trying to throw meaningful innings for us is really difficult. I just need to clean that up soon and get back to who I am as a pitcher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maton isn\u2019t a reclamation project. Unlike previous offseasons, the Cubs were aggressive in targeting relievers coming off strong seasons. This was not a situation where a reliever was coming off a terrible season and the Cubs were hoping they could correct some issues. Maton isn\u2019t a trusted veteran on the downtrend who could be had for cheap like some other recent additions. The Cubs saw Maton as someone who had plenty left in the tank, a 33-year-old who had found something extra in 2025 and could build on that. So they made him their first signing and paid him well, giving him a two-year, $14.5 million deal.<\/p>\n
Coming off a strong season in which he saw his velocity jump and posted a 2.79 ERA with a 32.7 percent strikeout season, Maton didn\u2019t want to assume he couldn\u2019t continue to get better. So in the offseason, he looked for little ways he could improve. Find that extra tick of velocity and better shapes for his pitches, and try to move more efficiently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like all those avenues I pursued this offseason were not the right way,\u201d Maton said. \u201cI\u2019m kind of paying the price right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maton said he felt fine in the spring training. The shapes of his pitches were good and he liked where his delivery was at. The execution wasn\u2019t perfect, but that\u2019s what spring training is for. Now he feels like it would have been better to be out of whack a month ago so he had spring training games to get right.<\/p>\n
Maton\u2019s primary offerings are his cutter and his curveball. Last season, those pitches were the main generators of whiff for him. He allowed a .282 and .209 wOBA on those pitches, respectively. This season, those numbers are currently .431 and .583, respectively. The whiff on his cutter is way down, from 32.9 percent to 8.0 percent. That pitch is what he\u2019s focusing on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really trying to simplify my delivery and get back to where I was last year when I was feeling really good with my delivery,\u201d Maton said. \u201cEfficient down the mound and getting into my legs. Right now I\u2019m just not doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maton\u2019s cutter is down a full tick and a half, to 89.2 mph. He\u2019s also getting too much cut on the pitch and not as much ride as he likes. Essentially, Maton is getting too rotational. He wants to stay behind the ball more, and in turn, that\u2019ll fix both the velocity and shape of the pitch.<\/p>\n
And the curveball?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, that\u2019s been terrible,\u201d Maton said. \u201cIt has to do with being around the cutter. I do have a sweepy curveball, but swing-and-miss typically happens above and below the barrel. It\u2019s trying to get more depth back on my curveball. That\u2019s where the swing and miss is going to happen. I think it\u2019s one of those things, fix one thing, it\u2019ll fix both.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the guidance of pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and assistant pitching coach Casey Jacobson, Maton is putting in the work to get right. His focus is on his arm path and the timing with his lower half. He said plyo work helps clean up his arm action, making it shorter and more compact. He\u2019s also added drill work, including dropstep drills, to get his posture where it needs to be and to make sure he\u2019s moving toward the plate instead of being rotational.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Phil Maton\u2019s strike percentage on his cutter fell 17 percent from last season. (Patrick Gorski \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very fortunate I have guys like Tommy and Casey who are poring over video, looking at every avenue, stuff I don\u2019t even understand to try and help clean things up for me,\u201d Maton said. \u201cHopefully this is a quick hiccup and just move on down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maton is also an avid note-taker. He\u2019s been journaling after every outing he\u2019s had in his professional career, all the way back to 2015, when he was in Low A with the San Diego Padres. He\u2019s been looking back at his notes from 2025 to try to find cues that will help him return to form.<\/p>\n
As a veteran, it\u2019s hardly the first time he\u2019s had struggles. In 2024, he had a 12.00 ERA after eight outings. In his final 63 outings, he delivered a 2.79 ERA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, I\u2019ve had a lot of challenging moments,\u201d Maton said. \u201cEven my wife said, \u2018No, you always get through this stuff, you always figure it out.\u2019 It\u2019s good having people like that in your corner. Having failure early in my career has created endurance. But also, I feel like I troubleshoot pretty fast now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maton is also happy that his manager, Craig Counsell, hasn\u2019t lost faith in him. The Cubs know they need Maton and that it\u2019s foolish to give up on relievers early in the year. They see the fixes that need to be made and that Maton is working hard to correct them. Right now, patience is key.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhil\u2019s one of those guys you\u2019re going to count on in big innings, you\u2019re going to count on him to get right-handed hitters out,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cSo we need that, absolutely. He\u2019s not throwing it like he\u2019s capable of the last couple outings. But we\u2019ll get him there. I\u2019m very confident we\u2019ll get him there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 After Tuesday\u2019s victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, Phil Maton was hunched over an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-671667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116375139798078215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671667","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=671667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}