The Tampa Bay Rays have elected to trade veteran reliever Phil Maton, who they’d signed to a relatively expensive, multi-year deal just before the season began, to the Mets.
In doing so, we are starting to see some trends in the Rays actions.
The first is that the Rays have been early movers in the trade market to clear a veteran off the books for a young pitcher who is showing a great deal of promise at Triple-A.
The first was moving Aaron Civale to the Brewers in order to clear room for Shane Baz in the rotation, and the second is Maton, whose departure clears the way for Manny Rodriguez to rejoin the bullpen after he put up a near 1.