The One Not Known To Walk: Zebby Matthews Utilizing Time In Wichita To Unknown Heights In Pro Baseball Landscape

Daniel Zebulon Matthews has been going by Zebby ever since he could remember. Growing up in the southwest region of North Carolina, his first name wasn’t exactly one people referred to him by.

“If somebody calls me Daniel, I might respond,” Matthews remarked, “I might take two or three times to listen for it, but it’s always been Zebby.”

Having older brothers who played baseball growing up, Zebby would go to their games to watch his siblings and keep himself company like any energetic young child does, racing around the vicinity.

“I was always around the field,” Matthews said, “I was that annoying kid running around the field everywhere.”

The time spent near the diamond would ultimately lead to him following onto it once he was old enough to play tee ball, and while the tee got swapped out for coaches and his fellow peers throwing the baseball, Zebby kept at it with the sport. He began taking pitching lessons throughout middle school and high school, and a breakthrough followed in his late teens.

“Toward my senior year of high school was when I really started taking it seriously,” Matthews said, “That was when I found out I was going to be a pitcher.”

After that discovery, that pitcher, who graduated from Smoky Mountain High School in 2018, played one season of JUCO ball at Walters State Community College before transferring to Western Carolina University at the NCAA Division 1 level. Through three seasons with the Catamounts, Matthews would strike out 211 batters to just 30 walks in 36 appearances. His hard work would ultimately pay off as the Minnesota Twins chose him in the eighth round of the 2022 MLB Draft.

Matthews would split time between the Florida Complex League and Single-A Fort Myers in 2022 and begin 2023 with the Mighty Mussels before helping the High-A Cedar Rapids Kernels to a Midwest League Championship. After starting the current season at 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA and 28 strikeouts to no walks in four starts at High-A, Matthews earned a call-up to the Double-A Wichita Wind Surge on May 6, 2024, just 26 days after his first start of the year against the Dayton Dragons (High-A Cincinnati Reds).

While many see the High-A to Double-A jump as the most significant in Minor League Baseball, Matthews has made it look like he’s still in Cedar Rapids. In seven appearances (six starts) with the Wind Surge, Matthews is 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA while striking out 48 batters in 40.2 innings. If that jump didn’t sound routine enough, he fanned 21 hitters (49 total if you count his 28 at High-A) with Wichita before issuing his first walk of the season on May 22 versus the San Antonio Missions. According to MLB.com’s Joe Trezza, the only two pitchers who had begun a season with more strikeouts before their first walk in Major League history (since the mound moved back to 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893) are Kenley Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers) in 2017 and Corbin Burnes (Milwaukee Brewers) in 2021, who amassed 51 and 58 K’s respectively.

The call-up also put Matthews in a position to work with pitching coaches D.J. Engle and Carlos Hernandez, the former in his second season with Wichita and the latter his first after a 2023 stint in Cedar Rapids. Engle believes that Matthews has excelled at what’s made him already successful ahead of the move to the ICT.

“He throws a bunch of strikes,” Engle said, “He throws 4-5 pitches pretty consistently. He is just going to go out there and throw his best stuff.”

Even though some can look at what Matthews has accomplished and think he’s a finished product, that doesn’t exactly ring true. Minimizing the ball placement out of his hands on throws and differentiating his five-pitch mix have been primary points of improvement identified by Engle and Hernandez.

“He’s human,” Engle said, “Even though it might not seem like he's human at times, he is human. There's going to be some pitches that aren't great, but we're trying to minimize that as much as possible [to] come up with the best solution possible.”

The credit that the coaching staff has put on Matthews for his work on getting better day in and day out has not been understated. Engle believes he’s “continued to develop into a real pitching prospect clearly on a path to a major league future.”

Regardless of when that future comes, Matthews also understands the importance of keeping his mind in the present with the Wind Surge, where his stock has drastically shot up in the minds of many in the Minnesota Twins system and around Minor League Baseball, including becoming the #100 ranked prospect on the Baseball America Top 100 List on June 6.

“I’m very happy here [in Wichita] right now,” Matthews said, “Everybody here is awesome. It’s definitely a great place on your stop and journey to come by and play baseball. I’m thankful to be here.”