Why Maton deserves some love

Phil Maton has had some less than impressive appearances from the bullpen this season, and we all know his stuff is not overpowering compared to some of our other arms. However, he is still useful to the team and deserves a chance to improve his numbers.

He has been on a rollercoaster this year, balancing some poor appearances with some pretty good ones. His ERA+ is at 99, right at league average. His WHIP is at a decent 1.27 and what has really hurt him so far has been the long ball. 7 HRs this year, over half of them with runners on base which makes that ERA jump. Something that gets overlooked is that the spin rate on his pitches is elite. Both his fastball and curveball have a 95% percentile spin, which helps offset the lack of speed on those pitches.

Perhaps most importantly, he does well against lefties in a bullpen that has exactly zero LHP now that Taylor and Mushinski are on the IL. His BA is .200 against lefties, vs. .288 against righties. If you go back to 2021, it’s the same: .233 against lefties and .275 against righties. OPS numbers are similar and his breaking pitches can make hitters overcommit when he is able to locate them.

While I would love to see the Astros try and acquire a left-handed reliever, Maton can still play an important role. We should be thankful that we have other weapons to use late in games so we can pick our spots for him. All I'm saying is, don’t sleep on Maton.