Phil Maton doesn't try to hide his frustration with his ailing knee.
The Chicago Cubs ' veteran reliever landed on the injured list , again, last week because of recurring right knee tendinitis. It's an issue Maton can trace back to the second half of the 2025 season with the Texas Rangers . He had hoped his IL stint in early April would resolve the problem. His knee felt good as May progressed, and Maton's performance improved, too.
In 14 appearances between May 19 and June 16, Maton posted a 2.25 ERA spanning 12 innings. But with the pitching staff taxed with injuries, a stretch of five outings in a seven-day span (June 10-16) caused Maton's knee problem to flare up again.
"It's one of those things where you try to kind of convince yourself every day, like, it's 100%, yeah it feels good, but it's just this kind of managing thing where it's pulling away from my ability to pitch at the level that I know I'm capable of," Maton told the Tribune. "And it's one of those things where thankfully we've got staff here keeping me in line, like, 'No, we need to address this and get this fixed.' Because they have a ton of faith in my ability to pitch big innings for us later in the year. If we never address it, never get it fixed, never get my delivery where it needs to be, I'm not doing anything good."
One of the most frustrating parts surrounding the timing of his troublesome knee was that Maton felt his delivery was feeling good after struggling to start the season (9.49 ERA in first 14 appearances).
"It's one of those things where if I never address where it needs to be it's going to be this constant battle against it, with one, the pain, but, two, my delivery and my ability to execute pitches," Maton said. "My stuff was good against the Mets , but it's the difference between two home runs and two zeros in those games. Thankfully we ended up winning the last one, but it would've been nice to not have to go to extras and stress our bullpen more than we did.
"I do know I'm very close with my delivery, and I think this will be a good chance to finally get ahead of everything and be where we need to be."
Maton, 33, isn't expected to return until after the July All-Star break, which gives him a couple of extra days of recovery before what the Cubs hope will be a full go for the rest of the season. As much as Maton wants this to be minimum time spent on the IL, getting three full weeks to focus on strengthening and rehabbing his knee is an important part of nipping the tendinitis. Maton is able to do more extensive therapeutic modalities in the training room that require more recovery, something that can't be done when he might need to pitch the following day.
"If I was active I couldn't do those treatments because I'd be useless," Maton said. "I'm going to maximize that, use this as good of a thing as possible and just try to really slingshot out of this and be the reliever that I was supposed to be when I came here."
Maton is in the first year of a two-year, $14.5 million contract he signed with the Cubs in November. Looking ahead, Maton knows he might need to surgically address his recurring knee problem in the offseason to fully move past it and avoid it inhibiting him again in 2027.
"Dealing with it chronically, it gets annoying," Maton said. "The first thought is always that, but I'm not a doctor, I don't know what the best plan is. Thankfully, we have an awesome medical staff and people to go to, but, yeah, I would like to address it as soon as the offseason begins so I don't have to deal with it again.
"Everything feels so close, it's just a matter of finally clearing it, so I can actually pitch effectively."
