Maton secures a two-year, $14.5 million deal, bolstering the Cubs' bullpen with his high-leverage skills and impressive strikeout potential.
We knew last week that the Chicago Cubs signed veteran relief pitcher Phil Maton to a multi-year deal. But we didn’t know how much the Cubs signed him for or what his contract looked like over the next few years.
Well, it was finally reported on Tuesday morning by both Jon Heyman of the New York Post and Jesse Rogers of ESPN that Maton signed a two-year, $14.5 million deal with $250k worth of incentives based on games pitched per year. The Cubs will also have a club option for the 2028 season.
While we don’t know the full breakdown of the contract in each year, we do know that Maton will be getting paid roughly $14.5 million to pitch for the Cubs over the next two seasons. That’s on par with what Spotrac had his market value set at (two years, $14.2 million) heading into free agency.
It was expected that Maton would cost the Cubs a little bit of money, considering he is coming off a career year in 2025. The 32-year-old finished with a 2.79 ERA, a 1.060 WHIP, and 81 strikeouts across 61 ⅓ combined innings with the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.
Maton also ranked in the 90th percentile or better in expected ERA (2.84), expected batting average (.195), whiff rate (36.2%), strikeout rate (32.5%), barrel rate (3.6%), and hard-hit rate (30.7%) among all pitchers in 2025. The two metrics that immediately pop out from above are the 36.2% whiff rate and 32.5% strikeout rate.
Given how much revamping the bullpen needs, this is more than an ideal contract that the Cubs gave Maton in free agency. He should operate as one of the team’s high-leverage arms in 2026 and could save some games if needed to.
For two years, $14.5 million, that’s a nice price for a pitcher who has shown some consistency on the mound in recent years. He had a 2.79 ERA across 28 ⅔ innings pitched with the New York Mets in the second half of the 2024 season, and then broke through this past year.
It’s unlike the Cubs to give out this type of money to relievers. That $14.5 million over two years is the largest contract the front office has given out to a relief pitcher since the team signed Craig Kimbrel to a three-year, $43 million deal in 2019.
So, it’s refreshing to see the front office go out and actually spend on the bullpen. The addition of Maton is the first step in helping fix a Cubs bullpen that could lose Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar, and Drew Pomeranz to free agency this offseason.