Matz, a New York product, is set to make $5.2 million annually and may become a free agent following the season. He’s coming off a gloomy 2020, when he went 0-5 with a 9.68 ERA and dropped his rotation spot throughout the pandemic-shortened season.
Toronto is trusting Matz can rediscover his ancient form and fortify a defendant pitching team because the Blue Jays seem to match a gifted group of hitters which includes free-agent newcomer George Springer.
Toronto lately signed Springer into some team-record $150 million, six-year contract. Looking to battle the AL winner Rays and big-budget Yankees in the AL East, the Blue Jays also attracted back lefty Robbie Ray and signed up right-handers Kirby Yates and Tyler Chatwood this offseason. They’ve a pending $18 million, single-family bargain with infielder Marcus Semien, subject to a physical.
“The majority of our heavy lifting is done,” team president Mark Shapiro said Wednesday ahead of the bargain for Matz has been declared.
The young Blue Jays qualified for its playoffs but were swept in two matches from the Rays throughout their first-round series.
Under new owner Steve Cohen, the Mets were believed to be thinking about Springer. They have been really busy elsewhere too, acquiring celebrity shortstop Francisco Lindor and starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco at a blockbuster trade with Cleveland.
New York additionally signed free-agent catcher James McCann into some $40.6 million, four-year contract, and reliever Trevor May into a $15.5 million, two-year thing. Left-hander Joey Lucchesi was acquired in a three-team trade between San Diego and Pittsburgh.
Now that Springer is off the plank, the Mets might be turning their focus on the free-agent marketplace to NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer or centre fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. — possibly a motivation for shedding Matz’s salary. New York added a left-hander to its bullpen earlier in the afternoon, agreeing to some yearlong contract with free agent Aaron Loup, a individual familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The man spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had been subject to a prosperous physical.
Loup’s impending arrival made Matz more expendable, and the trade with Toronto capped an eventful afternoon that started with the Mets promoting lately hired assistant general director Zack Scott to behaving GM — eight days following Jared Porter was fired from this job.
He’s 76 strikeouts at 71 2/3 innings and isn’t eligible for arbitration until after the 2022 season at the oldest.
Winckowski, 22, was a joint 10-8 with a 2.69 ERA in Class A Dunedin and Class A Lansing at 2019. The 15th-round draft selection has been rated Toronto’s 27th-best potential in 2020, according to MLB.com.
The 24-year-old Díaz appeared in a single major league match for the Blue Jays at 2019. He was 11-9 with a 3.74 ERA in 26 matches, 24 begins, for Double-A New Hampshire that season and has been rated the Blue Jays’ 26th-best potential in 2020 by MLB.com. Díaz is 34-26 with a 3.84 ERA more than five minor championships.
Matz climbed up on Long Island about 50 kilometers from Citi Field and has been a touted potential when he made his big league debut with a boom in June 2015. He went 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA in six starts that year and helped toss the Mets into the NL pennant. He was 0-1 with a 3.68 ERA in three postseason starts, including one at the World Series from Kansas City.
Observing another promising period in 2016 which has been cut short by accident, Matz fought through an undercover 2017 campaign. He travelled 5-11 with a 3.97 ERA over 154 innings at 2018, also 11-10 with a 4.21 ERA over 160 1/3 innings at 2019.
Matz became the third pitcher in Long Island included with a Jays-Mets swap because July 2019, when Toronto delivered Marcus Stroman into New York in a deal which netted left-hander Anthony Kay — who attended the exact same high school as Matz.
