Steven Matz

Steven Jakob Matz (born May 29, 1991) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, and Boston Red Sox. Matz was born and raised on Long Island and played baseball for Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, New York. The Mets drafted him directly out of high school in the second round of the 2009 MLB draft, with the 72nd overall selection.

The start of Matz's professional career was delayed two years due to Tommy John surgery needed for a tear in the ulnar collateral ligament of his throwing elbow. Matz made his professional debut in 2012 and spent three years in the Mets' minor leagues, helping lead the Savannah Sand Gnats and Binghamton Mets to championships. He was named the Mets' Organizational Pitcher of the Year in 2014. He made his MLB debut on June 28, 2015, breaking several hitting records in his first start.

After compiling a 4–0 win–loss record and a 2.27 ERA in an injury-shortened regular season, Matz played in three 2015 postseason games, including Game 4 of the World Series against the Kansas City Royals. Matz opened 2016 with a 7–1 record and led all rookie pitchers in wins, ERA, and strikeouts through the end of May. He was named National League Rookie of the Month in May and was considered a contender for NL Rookie of the Year before his season was once again shortened due to injuries, including a bone spur that had to be surgically removed.

Matz again battled through injuries in 2017, making just 13 starts in a season that ended with surgery to address ulnar nerve irritation. He played his first 30-start season in 2018, recording a 5–11 record, 3.97 ERA, and 1.25 WHIP. In 2019, Matz had the best ERA of any Mets starting pitcher through June, and though he struggled in later starts, he finished the season at 11–10, his first winning record since 2016. Matz has been involved in several charitable efforts, including starting the charity initiative Tru 32, which honors first responders from the New York City Fire Department, New York City Police Department, and U.S. Military.

Early life Steven Matz was born on May 29, 1991, He has an older brother, Jonathan, and a younger sister, Jillian. Lori was an administrative employee at Comsewogue High School in Port Jefferson Station, New York. As a child, Matz attended the Nassakeag Elementary School in the Three Village Central School District.

Matz first started playing baseball in the Three Village Little League when he was 8 years old. By age 10, Matz began receiving pitching lessons from former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Neal Heaton, a fellow lefthander who also hailed from the area. He attended Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, New York, where he pitched and played first base for the school's baseball team. He played varsity since his freshman year, during which time his fastball averaged 90 miles per hour. Matz first drew attention from scouts in the New York Mets organization during a baseball showcase tournament in 2008, and their interest in him continued to grow in subsequent years. The two were roommates during the Area Code Games and pitched against each other several times in high school, which was attended by more than 50 scouts from every MLB team, helping Ward Melville win its first league title in 34 years. He also had a .408 batting average with nine doubles, six home runs, and 34 RBIs. and won the Yastrzemski Award as the best high school ballplayer in Suffolk County in his senior year.

Professional career Minor leagues The New York Mets selected Matz in the second round, with the 72nd overall selection, of the 2009 MLB draft, received interest from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox, but both ultimately passed on him, and he fell to the Mets. A doctor diagnosed him with an 80 percent tear in his ulnar collateral ligament of the elbow, and began living in the same house in Port St. Lucie, Florida during every spring training there. Matz did not make his professional debut until 2012, Matz had shutout innings and 17 strikeouts for Savannah during the playoffs. and pitched the team to the 2013 SAL championship on September 13, throwing innings against the Hagerstown Suns and striking out nine batters in the 2–0 victory. and was named to the league's All-Star team, before he was promoted to the Binghamton Mets of the Double–A Eastern League in June. striking out 11 and allowing no hits through seventh innings, as Binghamton defeated the Richmond Flying Squirrels 2–1 on September 12. After the 2014 season with Binghamton, the Mets named Matz their Organizational Pitcher of the Year.

Matz opened the 2015 season with the Las Vegas 51s of the Triple–A Pacific Coast League. the best ERA in the league, He was the first Long Island high school pitcher to make his MLB debut with the Mets since Ray Searage in 1981. His first MLB pitch, to Brandon Phillips, was wild enough to escape the mitt of the catcher; later in that at-bat Phillips hit a home run. He was also the sixth Mets pitcher with four RBI in any game, He had a 1.32 ERA, 14 strikeouts, and five walks over 13 innings across his first two games. Shortly afterward, Matz was placed on the disabled list for two months due to a partial tear in the latissimus muscle in his left side. Matz returned to the pitching rotation on September 6 with a no decision, but won his next two consecutive starts. He finished the regular season with a 4–0 record, 2.27 ERA, and 1.23 WHIP over six starts, which forced him to miss his final regular season start and threatened to sideline him again; however, he played through it and remained on the Mets pitching rotation during the team's postseason run. marking his first loss in the major leagues. but was denied a chance at the win after being pulled with a 6–1 lead and two outs in the fifth inning. The Mets won the game 8–3, clinching the pennant. Mets manager Terry Collins allowed Matz to hit for himself in the fifth inning, then kept him in to pitch in the sixth. With the game tied 2–2, Matz allowed a double from Ben Zobrist and a run-scoring single from Lorenzo Cain, giving the Royals the lead before Matz was pulled. Matz received a no-decision as Kansas City won the game 5–3. The Royals went on to win the World Series in Game 5.

Matz had a 3.68 ERA across his three postseason starts. The Mets pitching rotation had a combined 3.43 ERA in 2015, the fourth-best in the league.

2016

Matz made the Mets' opening day roster in 2016 as the fifth starter in the Mets rotation, along with Colón, deGrom, Harvey, and Syndergaard. Despite his experience with the Mets in 2015, Matz was still considered a rookie player in 2016 due to the amount of time he missed the previous year. Matz opened the season with the worst start of his career to date, surrendering seven runs before getting pulled in the seventh inning of a 10–3 loss to the Miami Marlins. However, Matz rebounded and won his next seven consecutive starts, bringing his record to 7–1 and his ERA to 2.36 by May 25, He allowed two runs or fewer in every game over that span, the best streak in the majors in that time period, and he was only the fifth MLB rookie since 1920 to have such a long streak. with 31 strikeouts and batters hitting .180 against him.

In early May, Matz was discovered to have a large bone spur in his throwing elbow. but doctors also determined there was no ligament damage in the arm. Matz attempted to continue playing through the bone spur after receiving medical assurances that doing so would not cause additional damage to his elbow. He received a cortisone shot, and the team hoped he could wait until the offseason to have surgery. Matz threw eight innings for the first time in his career on May 25, allowing no runs and retiring 16 consecutive batters against the Washington Nationals in a 2–0 win. As of June 10, Matz's ERA was 2.39, the best among rookie starters, and he was averaging 17.9 seconds between pitches, the quickest length of time in the MLB. In his next start against the San Diego Padres on August 14, Matz did not allow a hit until a single in the eighth inning on his 105th pitch.

While throwing in preparation for an August start, he felt a twinge in his left shoulder, apparently unrelated to his bone spur. Following his August 14 start, Matz was added to the disabled list due to a left shoulder impingement. Matz rehabbed his left shoulder in September, and tried to return to the pitching rotation several times, and had surgery in October to remove the bone spurs, 1.21 WHIP, and 121 strikeouts. Matz received one third-place vote for 2016 National League Rookie of the Year, placing him in a three-way tie for sixth place with Jon Gray and Seung-hwan Oh. The Mets made the 2016 playoffs, but lost the National League Wild Card Game to the San Francisco Giants.

2017 At the start of the season, the MLB marketed the Mets pitching rotation of Matz, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, and Noah Syndergaard as the "Four Horsemen of Queens", with a commercial suggesting they could be "the best staff in baseball". Matz missed the first two months of the 2017 season due to an elbow inflammation. Team doctors believed at the time it might have been a side effect of his bone spur surgery the previous fall, and prescribed platelet-rich plasma injections and rest. though that diagnosis was not made by the Mets' doctors. He performed well in his first five starts, posting a 2.12 ERA and logging at least six innings in each game,

However, in his subsequent six starts between July 9 and August 6, Matz had a 0–4 record, 11.03 ERA, 2.20 WHIP, and 29 earned runs and 46 hits allowed over that span. which also marked the shortest start of his career to that point. He required season-ending surgery to decompress and reposition the ulnar nerve, a procedure similar to one DeGrom underwent in 2016. After it was announced Matz would require surgery, it was revealed he had been skipping bullpen sessions between starts, and limiting the use of his slider to lessen the strain on his elbow. and 45 earned runs allowed. His first start of the season was against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 1, in which he lasted just four innings while allowing four hits, three walks, and three runs. It marked the third time in nine starts that he failed to complete more than four innings, bringing his record over that span to 0–7, with a 9.82 ERA and 2.02 WHIP. He notched a victory against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 13, his first recorded win since June 28, 2017, ending a streak of seven consecutive losses and 11 starts with either a loss or no-decision. He failed to pitch beyond four innings in two additional starts in April.

Matz allowed no runs in a 5–0 win against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 24, his first start with no runs since July 3, 2017. Matz had a 3.31 ERA in his first 13 starts of the season through June 16, allowing 24 earned runs over innings. He had a 2.91 ERA in 13 starts between May 5 and the All-Star break in mid-July, and had a 2.25 ERA in road starts on the season. Matz and fellow Mets pitchers deGrom, Syndergaard, and Zack Wheeler combined for a 3.07 ERA heading into the All-Star break, the second-best of any MLB pitching rotation behind only the Houston Astros' 3.02 ERA. In his first three starts following the All-Star break, Matz allowed 16 runs in innings for a 12.35 ERA.

Matz tied a career high with nine strikeouts against the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 26, but followed that performance with a July 31 start against the Washington Nationals in which he was pulled after recording two outs and allowing seven runs on eight hits in of an inning, marking the shortest start of Matz's career, On September 1 against the San Francisco Giants, Matz struck out a career-high 11 batters over seven innings, allowing three hits, one run, and one walk. Matz hit his first career home run on September 13, 2018, against the Miami Marlins pitcher Sandy Alcántara, the first by a Mets pitcher in 2018.

Matz posted a 4.97 ERA in the second half of the year, Matz finished the 2018 season with a career-high 30 starts, a 5–11 record, 3.97 ERA, He allowed 28 stolen bases in 2018, the second-highest amount of any major league pitcher, behind only Mets teammates Syndergaard's 32. On average, Matz took 19.5 seconds between pitches during the season, the second-fastest among 336 pitchers in the league who threw at least 50 innings, behind only Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Brent Suter's 18.6 seconds.

2019 Steven Matz (center) with (from left to right) Chili Davis, Devin Mesoraco, and T. J. Rivera on March 2, 2019. Matz prepared for 2019 by practicing light throwing nearly the entire off-season, starting in mid-October and taking only two weeks off, a method inspired by that of fellow Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom. On January 11, 2019, Matz and the Mets agreed to a one-year contract worth $2.625 million, avoiding salary arbitration and raising Matz's salary more than four times his $577,000 the previous season.

Matz had a 0.87 ERA across his first two starts of the regular season, lowering his ERA to 2.14 over his previous 10 starts. resulting in a 3–1 record. The exception was Matz's worst game of the season on April 16, when he allowed eight runs (six earned) and had zero outs against the Philadelphia Phillies before getting pulled in the first inning, marking his highest run total of the season, Matz became one of only six pitchers in MLB history to face eight batters and retire none, the ninth pitcher since 1908 to pitch less than one inning and allow at least eight runs, and had a 3.86 ERA across 35 innings in his first seven starts through May 3, allowing two or fewer runs in all but one of those games. Matz had a career-best 9.07 K/9 by May 23, and his walk rate of 2.62 per nine innings was 0.77 better than his average the previous year. Matz went into June with a 4–3 record, 3.55 ERA, and 1.34 WHIP, pitching at least six innings and allowing two runs or fewer in four of his past six starts. Also at the start of June, Matz had a 3.03 ERA and .224 opponent average (74–331) over his previous 17 starts since August 21, 2018, the 12th-best ERA and 10th-best opponent average in the National League over that time period. beginning with a June 2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in which he surrendered five runs over six innings. Despite matching career-highs in strikeouts (10) and pitches (120) in a 5–3 win against the Colorado Rockies on June 8, he dropped his next two starts, having surrendered at least five runs in three of his last five starts. allowing eight home runs in innings, On July 2, Matz was temporarily moved to the Mets bullpen, but returned to the starting rotation after the All-Star break. and a 5–6 record, with an 11.40 ERA in the first innings across all his starts for the season. Over his next three outings, Matz had a 2–0 record with a 1.89 ERA, 15 strikeouts, and two walks. This included his first complete-game shutout on July 27, throwing 99 pitches, recording seven strikeouts, and allowing five hits as the Mets defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 3–0. It marked the eighth time in Mets' history that a pitcher threw a complete game shutout in under 100 pitches (known as a Maddux), and the first time since Johan Santana threw one in 2012. Matz and the rest of the Mets' starting rotation recorded a post-All Star Break ERA of 2.62 through August 7, the best in the majors at that point, which helped place the Mets back into Wild Card contention despite them finishing the first half of the season 10 games under .500. By August 20, Matz had a 2.81 ERA and 3–1 record across his seven starts and innings since the All-Star break, striking out 38 batters and allowing just three home runs, Matz surrendered seven earned runs on six hits in his final road start of the season on September 16, including six runs in the fourth inning alone, in a 9–4 loss to the Colorado Rockies. compared to 1.94 ERA at home at the time. Matz threw six shutout innings, and notched seven strikeouts, in a win against the Atlanta Braves during his final start of the season on September 28. It marked the 20th time in two years that he held his opponents to fewer than four hits in a game.

Matz finished the season at 11–10, marking his first winning record since 2016. He ended 2019 with a 4.21 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, and 52 walks, which sidelined him for three weeks. He finished the season 0–5 with a 9.68 ERA in nine games (six starts).

Toronto Blue Jays On January 27, 2021, the Mets traded Matz to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for right-handed pitchers Sean Reid-Foley, Yennsy Díaz, and Josh Winckowski.

On July 24, 2021, Matz faced the Mets at Citi Field for the first time since being traded to the Blue Jays. After receiving a very warm welcome from the sparse crowd, Matz pitched innings giving up four hits, two earned runs from a Pete Alonso home run in the first inning, and three walks while striking out five, in a 3–0 loss. The tough-luck loss dropped Matz's record on the season to 8-5.

On August 22, Matz gave up Miguel Cabrera's 500th career home run in the sixth inning of a game against the Detroit Tigers. In 2021, Matz posted a 14–7 record with a 3.82 ERA and 144 strikeouts in innings over 29 starts. His 14 wins tied for second in the American League.

St. Louis Cardinals Matz became a much-sought-after free agent after his bounce-back year in Toronto, with at least six teams pursuing him. Just as it seemed he was about to sign a deal to return to the Mets, Matz on November 29, 2021 finalized a four-year $44 million contract to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals. (Mets' owner Steve Cohen raged on Twitter against Matz's agent, saying, "I’ve never seen such unprofessional behavior exhibited by a player’s agent. I guess words and promises don’t matter." For his part, Matz denied having made any verbal agreements with the Mets, and both Cohen and Matz insisted that they had no issue with the other.) Matz made 15 appearances (10 starts) for the Cardinals in 2022, missing half of the year due to injuries, and compiled a 5.25 ERA with 54 strikeouts over 48 innings. The following year, 2023, Matz made 25 appearances (17 starts) for St. Louis, registering a 4–7 record and 3.86 ERA with 98 strikeouts across 105 innings pitched.

Matz began the 2024 season as part of the Cardinals' rotation, struggling to a 6.18 ERA in six starts. He was placed on the injured list with a lower back strain on May 3, 2024, and transferred to the 60–day injured list on June 28. Matz was activated on September 1. He made 12 total appearances for the Cardinals, compiling a 1-2 record and 5.08 ERA with 33 strikeouts across innings pitched.

Matz began the 2025 season in the Cardinals' bullpen. In his first appearance on March 30, 2025, he recorded his first career save. In 32 appearances (two starts) for St. Louis, Matz pitched to a 5-2 record and 3.44 ERA with 47 strikeouts over 55 innings of work.

Boston Red Sox On July 31, 2025, the Cardinals traded Matz to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Blaze Jordan. Matz made 21 relief appearances for the Red Sox, recording a 2.08 ERA with 12 strikeouts and one save across innings pitched.

Tampa Bay Rays On December 16, 2025, Matz signed a two-year, $15 million contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. On June 6, 2026, the Rays announced that Matz would be moving to the bullpen after recording a 5.48 ERA across his first 10 starts of the season.

Pitching style

Matz has an average fastball velocity of between 92 and 94 miles per hour, with a peak velocity of 95 miles per hour. His curveball velocity averages between 76 and 78 miles per hour, while his changeup averages between 81 and 83. According to the website Brooks Baseball: Fellow Mets players Jacob deGrom and Brandon Nimmo were in Matz's wedding party. Matz was likewise a groomsman in deGrom's wedding party. inviting them to attend Mets games for free. The initiative was later expanded to offer scholarships for children of individuals who have died in the line of duty. and was the New York Mets' Marvin Miller Man of the Year nominee that year.

Matz considered becoming a firefighter as a child before pursuing a career in baseball, and even considered it as a possible alternative career while dealing with injuries early in his baseball career. Matz is a Christian and has spoken openly about his faith. He was raised as a non-practicing Lutheran, but after attending a Bible study group during his time in the minor leagues, he joined a non-denominational church, Calvary Chapel, in Queens.