The St. Louis Cardinals have officially entered the trade market earlier today when they traded closer Ryan Helsley to the New York Mets. The moves continued late Wednesday by dealing veteran swingman Steven Matz to the Boston Red Sox. Phil Maton appears to be next on the list to find a new home.

Steven Matz traded to Boston Red Sox

After signing lefty Steven Matz to a four-year, $44 million deal heading into the 2022 season, the Cardinals expected Matz to fill a role in the starting rotation. He was just coming off four consecutive healthy seasons and a career-high 14 win season as a starter with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was brought in to be a veteran presence and the sole lefty in the rotation as St. Louis looked to bolster a mediocre rotation. At the time, the signing looked to be a solid value.

However, injury issues plagued the lefty for most of his tenure. In the first three years of his deal, Matz combined to make 34 starts and covered just over 150 innings after dealing with a plethora of maladies. Coming into the 2025 season, it looked like Matz would have the inside track at a rotation spot after the Cardinals moved him back and forth from the bullpen in an effort to keep him healthy in the year prior. That plan was put on hold thanks to the team holding onto Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, Miles Mikolas, and Andre Pallante before making Matthew Liberatore the fifth starter after a nice spring.

Matz’ role in 2025 was announced to be a swingman/sixth starter when the schedule called for one but he only ended up making two starts out of his 32 appearances. He bounced back in a big way and rebuilt his value as a multi-inning reliever as he has pitched to a 3.44 ERA over his 55 innings of work. For his Cardinal tenure, the 34-year old ended up pitching to a 15-14 record in 84 appearances. While the full deal did not play out as either side hoped, he performed well while he was on the field.

Something of intrigue, Chaim Bloom worked with the Red Sox from 2020 through 2023 before coming to St. Louis. For Matz’ services for the next two-plus months, the Cardinals will receive first baseman Blaze Jordan from Boston, whom Bloom was in charge of selecting. A third-round pick in the 2020 draft, Jordan checks in as Boston’s 17th-best prospect. Despite the name, he is not a fast runner but has shown some pop this year with 12 homers between Double-A and Triple-A. The 23-year-old profiles as a bat-first first baseman who has a good knowledge of the strike zone and puts the ball in play. He will likely slot into the starting lineup with Triple-A Memphis.