Brian Matusz was a top prospect for the Baltimore Orioles back in 2009. He was one of those guys who comes up with tons of hype, and it just doesn’t work out.
He was supposed to be this amazing starting pitcher, but he got hit really hard, so they moved him to the bullpen, where he also got hit hard. His one claim to fame is that he was absurdly successful against David Ortiz — who, over the course of his career, got only four hits in 29 at bats against Matusz — for a batting average of .138.
And for Orioles fans, this is one of those stats they carry around in their heads that makes them feel like they know the story of Matusz. But how much did fans actually knew about the player?
Back in January, Matusz was found dead of an apparent drug overdose at a house in Phoenix. He was just 37 years old.
Danielle Allentuck, a beat reporter for the Baltimore Banner, recently wrote an extensive feature about the unraveling of Matusz’s life and joined The Show to talk about it.
Among other things, Allentuck said that when he was in high school here in Phoenix, Matusz was one of the best players his coaches had ever seen — so good, in fact, that they actually had to change the league rules.
Full conversation
DANIELLE ALLENTUCK: So, at the time, the playoffs were single elimination. So, one win would get a team into the next round. And Brian Matusz started that one game for his team. He struck out 12, he hit a home run, and kind of single-handedly lifted his school to a win and advancing in the playoffs. So, the Arizona high school association decided after that year that, you know, one singular player is not enough to advance the team to the next round, so they changed the double elimination, so the team had to win two games in order to advance to the next round because, you know, Brian was so good in that one game all by himself.
SAM DINGMAN: Wow, that's really amazing. Around this time, you found this quote that he gave to the Arizona Republic. And it's a very eerie quote given what happens in your story: “I'm not neat off the field, but I am on the mound.” That makes me think about the way that you characterize Brian's dad in the story. Tell me a little bit about what you found out there.
ALLENTUCK: He was very hard on him, and he pushed his two sons to be the best baseball players that they could be. And that meant a lot of hours of work. So, we kind of came to understand that baseball was Brian's identity. It was kind of all he knew growing up and in his 20s and 30s as he continued on in his baseball career.
DINGMAN: Yeah, well, at least initially that was working out very well for him. He got drafted by the Orioles fourth overall in I believe it was 2008. And once he got to the major leagues, he didn't have the success that he had been accustomed to in high school.
ALLENTUCK: So, Brian had always been a starter. It was what he identified himself as, but they moved him to the bullpen in 2012. And he saw that move as a demotion, you know, he identified himself as a starter. It's what he wanted to be, it's what he defines success as. And that's when you kind of see everything kind of start to go downhill for him.
In 2014 is when you really start to get a look at some of the internal battles that he had. He had gone home to Arizona for the All-Star break and met up with one of his good friends. And he ended up taking Percocet, which is a very high caliber drug and he took it for the entire All-Star break, and his friend had said, “You know, but this is what he's like during the all-star break, I can imagine what he's like during the season.” You can't be pitching at a high level while also taking that level of a drug.
DINGMAN: Yeah, and one of the really haunting moments of that sequence you were just describing where his friend sees him taking Percocet, is that it seems to the friend, as you write, that Brian's goal in taking as much Percocet as he was taking was to fully disassociate. He says it seemed like he was trying to “zombie out.”
ALLENTUCK: Yeah, and he did not see himself as a successful pitcher anymore. And when your entire identity is wrapped up and who you are in the field and you're not achieving there, he wanted to just try to erase it. He wanted to, you know, not have to think about it. The Orioles in 2016 traded him to Atlanta, who then essentially cut him. Brian did not believe that his career was over. He kept giving it, you know, additional chances. He signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks a year later, but he never made it to the majors. A couple years later, he tried to go to Mexico. He tried to go to a different independent ball league. The way his friends describe it is he was just never able to let go.
DINGMAN: So I'm a huge Orioles fan and like I remember being so excited about Brian Matusz in terms of what he represented. I remember at the time he came up, he was part of what Orioles fans would call “the cavalry.” He was gonna be, you know, one of, I think it was four pitchers at the time, who was gonna come up from the minor leagues and return the franchise to relevance. And even after he was demoted to the bullpen and didn't always have very much success there, as you point out in the piece, the one thing he was really, really stellar at was, striking out David Ortiz, who's a Hall of Fame designated hitter.
My friend and I would actually, every time we were watching a game and he would strike out David Ortiz, we would text each other, "Matuszfaction.” But the thing your piece made me think about was we had no idea who he actually was. As somebody who follows baseball players every day, do you feel like you have an increased sensitivity now maybe to what might be going on?
ALLENTUCK: Yeah, I mean, most definitely. And I can give you an example of a conversation I had with Trevor Rogers, who on Wednesday was returned to the majors after a really rough go around in 2024 Worlds after he was traded here. And, you know, we had had a long talk about how he had put a lot of pressure on himself. He only identified as a baseball player, he said. So when he wasn't playing well, it really weighed on him and impacted the rest of his life.
He ended up going to see a sports psychologist. And because I had just done this whole story on Brian and mental health, I had a feeling — I didn't know for sure — that that might apply to him. And these guys go through so much. This is their lives. This is all they've ever wanted to do. And when it's not going well, it destroys them.
DINGMAN: Yeah. Would you be able to say what it was about observing Trevor Rogers, the player you were just talking about — who again is, at least as of this recording, back up in the major leagues with the Orioles after being demoted to the minor leagues for a while — to kind of rediscover his pitching skills. Was there anything in particular about him that gave you a suspicion that that might be a good question to ask?
ALLENTUCK: So, he had mentioned about how last year when he was sent down to the minors, that it had really eaten at him. But this year he was better prepared. And I just had a feeling that that wasn't a conclusion that he came to himself. That he probably needed help. So, we ended up, I just sort of straight up asked him, and I've covered other players who have been in high-impact trades, who have spoken very openly about how much pressure they feel when they're in these situations.
So, I use that kind of as an intro for Trevor to show like, “You're not alone, and there are other players who have spoken about that.” And he, you know, then went on to share about how, you know, he wasn't OK. He was not excited for spring training this year. He had to ask for help — or if he didn't think he would have the second chance back in the majors.
DINGMAN: Well, I have to say, you know, Danielle, I mean, thank you for sharing that, and I guess by extension, I really appreciate Trevor sharing that with you because as a fan reading so much of the coverage of Trevor Rogers this year, there's been so much focus on the fact that, “Oh, well, he's rediscovered the velocity on his fastball.” And I'm sure, you know, obviously from a practical standpoint, that's part of it, but that, you know, makes it sound like, “Ah, it was clearly just a conditioning issue or an arm angle issue,” or something like that. From what you're saying, it sounds like, yeah, maybe those things are true. But in tandem with that was the fact that he needed to be reminded that he was capable of throwing that hard and reconnect with a desire to be able to do it.
ALLENTUCK: Absolutely. And there was a great line that Trevor said — and I don't remember the exact wording of it. But it was something along the lines, he has spent his entire life building up his baseball skills, that he needs to treat his mental skills the same way, otherwise his baseball skills don't matter.
