Inside The Rangers

Rangers Acquire Reliever Phil Maton From Cardinals in Trade Deadline Buzzer Beater

The Texas Rangers finalized one more pitching trade before the 2025 MLB deadline, adding St. Louis Cardinals reliever Phil Maton.
Dylan Sanders|
Jul 1, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Phil Maton (88) pitches against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the eighth inning at PNC Park.
Jul 1, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Phil Maton (88) pitches against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the eighth inning at PNC Park. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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The Texas Rangers are continuing to add to their bullpen, as they acquired St. Louis Cardinals reliever Phil Maton, per ESPN's Jeff Passan, just minutes before the deadline.

Maton has had the best year of his career, posting a 2.35 ERA through 40 outings with a 1.122 WHIP and 48 strikeouts through 38.1 innings of work.

The Rangers should be fairly familiar with Maton, as he was a member of the rival Houston Astros in 2022 and 2023, winning a World Series with them.

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The 32-year-old had a 4.16 career ERA entering this season, so it is definitely an outlier campaign for him. Pretty much every advanced metric is in his favor, so it's not like his performance is just luck and he should be expected to regress.

He is a soft thrower, averaging under 90 mph on his sinker. But he has an elite curveball, which has been his biggest money maker this year. He throws it almost 40% of the time and hitters cannot figure it out.

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Maton joins an elite Texas bullpen that already has the best staff ERA in MLB at 3.24. They've been even better over the last month, getting down to 2.98.

Danny Coulombe and Merrill Kelly are two other pitchers that the Rangers traded for at the deadline.

Texas will need to hope that their pitching staff can stay elite, as they didn't upgrade their offense at the deadline.

The Rangers are tied with the Seattle Mariners at 57-52 for the final Wild Card spot, and they are five games back in the AL West from the Houston Astros.

For more Rangers news, head over to Rangers On SI.

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Dylan Sanders
DYLAN SANDERS

Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders

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