Steven Matz believes he knows why 2020 turned into such a dumpster fire for him:
He got caught speeding.
The left-hander, traded by the Mets to the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, introduced himself to the Toronto media Friday by explaining his hopes for a bounceback from last year’s disastrous 9.68 ERA in nine games.
“I got a little carried away last year,” Matz said on a Blue Jays Zoom call. “I was starting to throw a little harder, stuff like that, instead of really going back to what I did coming up through the minor leagues all the way to my big-league career. (I’ve) just (been) working on that fastball command.”
Matz’s average two-seam fastball velocity of 94.5 miles per hour marked his highest since his rookie season 2015, when he averaged 94.9, as per MLB.com’s Baseball Savant website. Rather than such extra juice helping out, however, it hindered. Opponents hammered the pitch to the tune of a .305 batting average and .678 slugging percentage, considerable jumps from .276 and .442 in 2019.
“You see where the game’s going,” Matz said. “All of a sudden, I had all this time in quarantine (during the shutdown), and I show up throwing a little bit harder. I’m like, ‘Oh man, this is cool! I can try to ramp up and stuff like that.”
It turned out not to be very cool, ultimately concluding a run with the Mets that began when, under general manager Omar Minaya, they drafted him in the second round of the 2009 draft out of Ward Melville High School in East Setauket.
“I became a man in that organization. From 18 to now almost 30 years old, I was with that organization,” said Matz, 29. “I grew up in it. I’m just thankful. Thankful for the opportunity they gave me. I built a lot of great relationships, had a lot of great experiences, learned a lot from ups and downs and different stuff. I think it was an awesome experience.” Since the trade, Matz said, he had heard from “a ton” of Mets folks wishing him well.
The trade, Matz said, “was definitely surprising especially for me, being with the New York Mets my whole career since I was 18 years old. It was a lot of emotions for sure. But just in playing the Blue Jays last year, knowing the type of team that they have, some of the things that they’ve been doing this offseason are extremely exciting.”
The Blue Jays hold control over Matz for one season, as he can become a free agent following the 2021 campaign.
The Mets continue to get out the word about Sean Dean, a member of their security team from 2002 through 2018 who died recently of COVID-19 at age 52. Dean’s family has a GoFundMe page to help his wife Melissa and their daughters Brianna, 11, and Emma, 8.