Matt Bush

Position: RHP
Born: 2/8/1986
Height: 5'9
Weight: 180
B/T: R/R
Acquired: Signed as a minor league free agent December 18, 2015 (TEX). Originally drafted in the first round (#1 overall) of the 2004 MLB First-Year Player Draft (SDP)

Most Recent Stats at Time of Debut
CURRENT SEASON STATS: 0-2 with a 2.65 ERA in 12 games at Frisco (Double-A), striking out 18 and walking four while allowing nine hits in 17 innings.

Info & MLB Debut Date
Contract purchased from Frisco May 13 when OF Delino DeShields, Jr., was sent down.
MLB Debut Date: 5/13/2016

Debut Details
May 13, in a 5-0 loss to the Blue Jays. The last of five pitchers, he tossed one perfect inning, the ninth, throwing 17 pitches, 10 of them for strikes and none of them hit out of the infield. With most of his sliders being clocked at 93-to-94 mph, he struck out the first batter he faced, Josh Donaldson, looking, then got Jose Bautista to pop out to second base and Edwin Encarnacion to pop out just foul of first base.

Player Notes
There is virtually zero chance that a movie about Matt Bush is not already in the works. Frankly, it is pretty much impossible to try to “encapsulate” the saga of his journey to the big leagues, so we won’t even try. We can tell you the basics: Drafted out of high school in San Diego as a shortstop by his hometown Padres, he hit a combined .219 in 206 games over parts of four seasons before moving to the mound in 2007. He spent all of 2008 on the DL and his contract was sold to the Blue Jays in February of 2009. He was released by the Jays two months later at the end of spring training. He was signed by Tampa Bay the following January and played sparingly in their system during 2010 and 2011 before running over a 72-year-old motorcyclist in Florida during spring training and spending the next three years in a Florida prison for DUI causing bodily harm (the man, who had been in critical condition, recovered). Released from prison in October 2015, Bush was spied by a Rangers scout working out in a lot behind the Golden Corral restaurant in Jacksonville, where he was working a minimum-wage job and getting back into shape. The Rangers, after doing due diligence both through a workout and long discussions with him and his family, signed him to a minor league deal in December. Those are the basics. But here are some more details from 2080 Baseball contributor Michael Tepid, who covered Bush in Frisco before his promotion, that he shared back in April in terms of background. And here, again from the intrepid Tepid, is the skinny on Bush the ballplayer.