Phil Maton’s season took another hard turn Wednesday night. The 33-year-old right-hander gave up two runs on three hits in one inning against the Atlanta Braves, and the Chicago Cubs paid for it in a game they badly needed.
It was the latest setback in what has been a shaky start for Maton, who opened the year by allowing two earned runs in four consecutive outings before returning from a knee injury in late April. He briefly steadied himself in May, throwing 4 2/3 scoreless innings across his first five appearances while allowing just one hit, one walk and one hit by pitch and striking out six. But his season line still sits at an 8.44 ERA with minus-0.1 fWAR, far below what the Cubs expected when they signed him to a two-year contract over the winter.
The one-inning collapse mattered because the Cubs brought Maton in to work in a high-leverage role, the kind that can swing tight games late. Instead, his outing against Atlanta effectively cost Chicago an important one, a damaging result for a team trying to keep its bullpen from becoming a weakness.
There is some broader context behind that concern. After the loss, the Cubs’ bullpen ranked 12th in ERA at 3.87, but the other numbers were far less flattering: 24th in FIP at 4.48, 23rd in strikeout rate at 21.0 percent and 23rd in fWAR at minus-0.1. The gap between the ERA and the underlying metrics points to a relief unit that has benefited from defense as much as it has from execution, and injuries have thinned the group further this year.
There was at least one reason for Chicago to feel better elsewhere in the late innings. Daniel Palencia appeared to be finding his groove again in the ninth, giving the Cubs another arm they can trust while Maton searches for the form that made him part of the winter plan. Whether Jed Hoyer chooses to augment the pitching staff in the middle of the season may depend in part on whether that recovery comes quickly enough.
For now, the Cubs are left with a simple problem: a pitcher they signed to help in big moments has spent too many of his own creating them for the other side.
