Blue Jays get to meet and greet The Matz

The Toronto Blue Jays have acquired left-hander Steven Matz from the New York Mets in exchange for three pitching prospects.

January 27, 2021

By Andrew Hendriks

Canadians Baseball Network

The Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets have come together on a three-for-one deal that sends right-handers Sean Reid-Foley, Josh Winckowski, and Yennsy Diaz to the Big Apple in exchange for LHP Steven Matz.

A veteran of six major league seasons, Matz, 29, has pitched to a cumulative ERA of 4.35 with 552 strikeouts against 180 walks across 412 contests, 107 of which have been starts.

Entering his final arbitration-eligible season prior to hitting free agency for the first time, the 6-foot-2 product of East Setauket, N.Y, will earn $5.2 million in 2021.

With the Blue Jays, Matz joins a stable of starters that includes Hyun-Jin Ryu, Nate Pearson, Robbie Ray, Tanner Roark, and Trent Thornton. Plus the likes of Ross Stripling, Anthony Kay, and Ryan Borucki may also see rotation consideration should they perform well this spring.

If there’s a knock on his game, it’s the fact that Matz has struggled to stay healthy and avoid the big fly over his career. He’s been sidelined with injuries at some point in each of his six seasons and has allowed a grand total of 96 home runs across 579 2/3 innings. That includes 14 he surrendered in his 30 2/3 innings in 2020, a figure that put him in a three-way tie for the second most round-trippers allowed in the National League.

In advance of Wednesday’s deal, Diaz and Winckowski were ranked as the Blue Jays No. 26 and 27 top prospects, per MLB Pipeline.

In addition to being on the club’s 40-man roster at the time of Wednesday’s deal, both Diaz and Reid-Foley have spent time in the majors. The latter of which having gone 5-8 while posting an ERA of 4.40 throughout 21 appearances with Toronto between 2018 and 2020.

The Mets had considered non-tendering Matz. Instead they turned him into three right-handers who project as back-end starter or reliever types without paying Matz in 2021. The $5.2 million savings may now see the Mets enter the Trevor Bauer chase.

The Mets already have RHPs Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco set to start, as well as LHPs David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi.

-Follow Andrew Hendriks on Twitter (@77hendriks)