June 27, 2024 – Texas League (TL)
Wichita Wind Surge News Release
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….
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