Red Sox add veteran lefty Matz in trade with Cardinals

BOSTON -- In a late Wednesday night trade, the Red Sox bolstered their bullpen by acquiring veteran left-hander Steven Matz from the Cardinals. Boston is sending Minor League infielder Blaze Jordan (No. 17 prospect) to St. Louis in the deal.

Though Matz has made 172 starts in his career, including two this season, the Red Sox plan on deploying him out of the bullpen.

TRADE DETAILS
Red Sox receive: LHP Steven Matz
Cardinals receive: 1B Blaze Jordan

The Red Sox pursued Matz in free agency prior to the 2022 season, but the Cardinals landed him at that time with a four-year, $44-million contract.

Matz had a rough go of it in his first three seasons in St. Louis, but he rallied this season to become one of the Cardinals’ most valuable pitchers because of his versatility.

This season, while working in a hybrid role as a reliever and starter, Matz has gone 5-2 with a save and a 3.44 ERA in 32 appearances. Two of those came as a short-burst starter when he was 1-0 with a 1.00 ERA over nine innings of work.

“He's obviously served multiple roles in the big leagues, but it seems like out of the 'pen, the stuff has ticked up,” said Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. “He's got a really good fastball that plays to both sides. He's a great strike thrower who's been in kind of pressure situations before, so we feel like he's someone that [manager] Alex [Cora] can call upon in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, and get really big outs for us. And if you kind of look at what he's done out of the 'pen, he's been really, really good.”

Jordan, now with St. Louis, will reunite with Cardinals advisor to baseball operations Chaim Bloom, who was with Boston from late 2019 to 2023.

In the first of Bloom’s four seasons as chief baseball officer for the Red Sox, he selected Jordan in the third round (No. 89 overall) of the 2020 Draft.

The bullpen has been a strength for the Red Sox (59-51) the last several weeks, and Matz provides Cora with another weapon.

It will be interesting to see how the roster is impacted by the addition of Matz, as the Red Sox already have three lefty relievers in Justin Wilson, Brennan Bernardino and Chris Murphy on the roster.

“In terms of the spot that he'll take, obviously, that will be a conversation that we'll work through,” said Breslow. “But in terms of what we think [Matz] brings, the stuff has been really good out of the bullpen. He's been an elite strike thrower, and the stability of bringing someone in late in games and leverage situations that you know is going to compete in the zone is really, really encouraging and inspires confidence. We really like the way that the stuff has played versus right and versus left, particularly the fastball, and feel like he's capable of getting high leverage outs for us down the stretch."

One reason for Matz’s improvement in 2025 has been his ability to stay healthy. He was bothered by arm and knee problems in 2022 when he was limited to 15 games -- 10 as a starter. ERAs of 3.86 and 5.08 in 2023 and 2024 cost Matz his role as a starter and led to him learning how to attack more out of relief roles.

This season, he pitched exceptionally well early (2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in April and 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in May). Following a rocky June (1-1, 7.30 ERA), Matz got back into form in July, going 1-0 with a 3.72 ERA.

Matz brings big-market experience with him to Boston, having pitched his first six Major League seasons (2015-20) with the Mets. In fact, he made three starts in the playoffs for New York in the ‘15 postseason, including one in the World Series, going 0-1 with a 3.68 ERA.

He also has experience in the American League East, going 14-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 29 starts for the Blue Jays in ‘21.

Matz mainly uses a three-pitch arsenal (sinker, curveball and changeup) but mixes in a slider every now and again.