CHICAGO – Given Phil Maton’s importance to the Cubs’ bullpen, the team opted not to take any chances when a knee issue flared on the veteran reliever.
Ahead of Friday’s game against the Pirates, the North Siders placed Maton on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to Wednesday) due to right knee tendinitis and recalled righty Ethan Roberts from Triple-A Iowa to take his place in Chicago’s bullpen. The Cubs are hopeful that Maton’s setback will not be a long-term issue.
“It’s April 10,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer reminded. “We’ve got to focus on the next 150 games and making sure that guys are in a good place. And I think pushing through discomfort in April, it almost can’t work, right? You’re going to make it worse. When Phil’s right, he’s really good. We just need to get the knee feeling better and get him back.”
Hoyer noted that it was a similar stance taken with veteran lefty Matthew Boyd, who was placed on the 15-day IL on Monday due to a left biceps strain. The Cubs are hopeful that Boyd – who will have a Minor League rehab assignment before being activated – can rejoin the rotation after minimal time off to rest and recover.
Both Hoyer and manager Craig Counsell noted that the 33-year-old Maton’s pitch velocity dropped to a level where it was clear the knee was presenting a problem. The impacted knee is Maton’s driving leg, reducing his ability to fire his arsenal with his typical force. In Maton’s outing against the Rays on Tuesday, his cutter velocity was down to 88.2 mph (after averaging 90.6 mph in 2025).
In fact, Maton’s cutter had seen a drop in velo in each of his appearances this season. The righty sat at 90.6 mph in his season debut, but then saw the average speed drop to 89.9 mph, 89.6 mph, 88.7 mph and, finally, 88.2 mph prior to being placed on the IL. Maton gave up six runs in his last three games combined.
“It’s hurting his ability to really drive,” Hoyer said. “His velo’s been down like one click on every pitch. Obviously, it’s having an impact.”
Overall, Maton had a 13.50 ERA to date this year in his five games, in which he had given up six runs on six hits with five strikeouts, four walks, two hit batsmen and one home run. Counsell said the Cubs are still plotting out the rehab plan for Maton, who should still be able to throw in some capacity in the coming days due to it not being an arm injury.
The Cubs signed Maton to a two-year, $14.5 million contract (plus a club option for ’28) over the winter to be a focal point of their relief corps. The deal came after the righty logged a 2.79 ERA with 81 strikeouts and 23 walks in 61 1/3 innings between stints with the Cardinals and Rangers last season. Maton had a 3.33 ERA with 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings from 2022-2025 combined.
“It’s kind of just gradually gotten a little bit worse,” Counsell said of Maton’s knee setback. “Obviously, he was pitching with it, but we saw a real effect to it in his last outing in Tampa. The velocity was down, and it was just a case of just not being able to sit into his back leg and drive off the mound. And it clearly affected him.
“We need to get rid of that. He’s dealt with this issue in the past. And so, we just need to get that out of there and get him back to normal.”