Rays close to deal with veteran free-agent lefty Matz (sources)

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Rays may have found the veteran starter they’ve been seeking for their rotation, as they are finalizing a two-year contract with free-agent left-hander Steven Matz, multiple sources told MLB.com.

Matz’s deal is for $15 million and pays $7.5 million per season, a source confirmed to MLB.com. The club has not confirmed the agreement, which is pending a physical, and team officials cannot speak about a contract until it is official.

“Looking for ways to get better, looking to improve our pitching and have some things going that we’re hopeful to accomplish soon enough,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said Tuesday at the Winter Meetings.

The Rays have been on the lookout for a veteran arm to add to their starting staff, someone to fill the role capably handled this past season by Zack Littell and Adrian Houser. Matz would be an interesting fit in that regard after spending last season in the bullpen for the first time in his career.

Matz’s first season as a primary reliever was by all accounts a success. The left-hander’s 3.05 ERA in 2025 was his lowest since his six-start debut season with the pennant-winning 2015 Mets (2.27), and it included a stellar stretch after a midseason trade from the Cardinals to the Red Sox. After posting a 3.44 ERA in 32 outings with St. Louis, Matz closed the regular season with a 2.08 ERA in 21 appearances for Boston.

Matz, who turns 35 next May, began a slow transition from starter to reliever after signing a four-year, $44 million deal with St. Louis before the 2022 season. The lefty, who started 136 of his 141 games before joining the Cardinals, started 10 of his 15 games in 2022, 17 of 25 in 2023 and seven of 12 in 2024. In 2025, though, Matz’s move to the bullpen became essentially full time: He started just twice in 53 appearances, topping out at five innings pitched.

“That was kind of my mindset coming into this season -- whatever they want me to do, I’m going to do it,” Matz said in May.

But Matz prepared to start last year and pitched at least four innings three times during the first month of the season, and he entered the offseason looking for another opportunity to start games.

“I talked to him throughout September and October. He felt like he wanted to be a starter again, and no doubt about it, he'll be fine,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Tuesday. “Strike-throwing machine, workaholic, good guy. They've got a good one, again.”

Speaking Monday afternoon at the Winter Meetings, Neander once again acknowledged their desire to add a veteran to their starting staff and hinted that it might not be a traditional, Littell/Houser-esque innings-eater.

“We’ve been kind of open to that being something that we look into. And whether it's a 200-inning anchor, whether it's someone that we like the talent but you take on a little more risk on the availability, we'll see,” Neander said. “You can never have enough. Coming off two years where there's a lot of room for improvement, I think trying to bring in at least another one would be helpful.”

The Rays are set to return All-Star Drew Rasmussen, Ryan Pepiot and Shane Baz to their rotation after each made a career-high 31 starts while working at least 150 innings apiece this past season. Ace Shane McClanahan is expected to be back in the mix, although he hasn’t pitched since 2023 due to Tommy John surgery and a nerve issue in his left triceps.

Tampa Bay dealt Littell to Cincinnati at the Trade Deadline, and Houser -- his replacement -- reached free agency at the end of the season. The Rays have options for the final spot in their rotation, including lefty Ian Seymour, hard-throwing righty Joe Boyle and Jesse Scholtens, but no sure things.

If Matz were to wind up in the bullpen, he would still have value as an effective second lefty reliever behind high-leverage arm Garrett Cleavinger. Tampa Bay is also bringing back hard-throwing southpaw Mason Montgomery, who has late-inning stuff but struggled to harness it in the Majors in 2025.

Matz has the arsenal to start, though, and the Rays have experience guiding pitchers -- including Rasmussen, Littell and Jeffrey Springs -- through the transition from the bullpen to the rotation.

The southpaw’s four-pitch arsenal is led by his sinker, which Matz threw 58.4% of the time in 2025, landing him inside the top 10 of qualifying pitchers. Matz’s most effective pitch was his curveball (.197 batting average against), while his changeup, which has elite vertical drop, also saw decent results. Matz’s repertoire also includes a little-used slider, which he threw only 18 times in all of 2025.

The lefty improved considerably on his 5.08 ERA in 44 1/3 innings for St. Louis in 2024 by limiting fly balls and pulled contact. He cut his 7.9% walk rate from ’24 by more than half, issuing just 11 free passes in 76 2/3 innings -- a 3.6% walk rate that ranked fourth among MLB hurlers (min. 50 innings pitched). Matz hasn’t had an above-average strikeout rate since 2022, but he’s still finding ways to get hitters out effectively.