The Cubs’ bullpen plan for 2026 took a brutal turn this week, and Phil Maton’s season now appears finished.
Before Wednesday’s series finale against the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago announced that Maton was scheduled to have surgery on his right knee. The veteran reliever has been dealing with a nagging knee injury all season, and this latest setback closes the book on a rough first year in Chicago.
Maton finishes 2026 with a 6.18 ERA in 27.2 innings. For a pitcher brought in as the club’s big bullpen addition, that’s a hard miss for Jed Hoyer and the Cubs.
The injury picture has only gotten clearer - and worse - over the past few weeks. Maton has been on the injured list since July 20, his third IL stint of the year, and each absence has been tied to what the Cubs described as right-knee tendinitis. But earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro reported that Maton has been diagnosed with a partial tear of the patellar tendon in his knee.
That diagnosis leaves his return in 2026 up in the air, and the Cubs are no longer counting on him down the stretch.
Maton had a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection on July 21, and the next step was to see whether he could progress back toward throwing. For now, he has been able to play catch on flat ground, but he has not gotten back on the mound.
By late August, Maton and the Cubs will have to decide whether his knee is in good enough shape to restart that build-up process. It’s still unclear whether he’ll need an offseason procedure to deal with the partial patellar tendon tear.
The injury also helps explain why things never looked right on the field. Maton signed a two-year, $14 million deal with the Cubs in the offseason to serve as the setup man, but in 31 games he posted a 6.18 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP. He never found his footing.
There’s another frustrating layer here, too. Maton said he was dealing with pain in that knee during his time with the Texas Rangers in 2025, though he pitched through it and never had testing done that offseason. He also felt the pain again in spring training, and the problem has lingered ever since.
Even so, the Cubs said nothing was flagged when they completed the deal in late November. Maton didn’t have issues during his offseason throwing program, and there was nothing in the medical process that raised a red flag before he signed.
Now Chicago is left waiting. Maton is most likely done for 2026, and the Cubs are hoping only that he gets healthy enough to be part of the picture in 2027.
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