Jason Matthews

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 187 lb.

• School University of South Carolina Upstate
• High School West Burlington High School, Alfriston College

• Born April 9, 1997 in Auckland New Zealand

BR register page

Biographical Information

Infielder Jason Matthews was the youngest position player on the New Zealand national team in the 2017 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers (held in February 2016 in Sydney), at age 18. He was one of only two position players they did not use (third-string catcher Dewald De Klerk was the other). While he was their youngest position player, they had four younger hurlers: Jimmy Boyce, Kyle Glogoski, Ben Thompson and Jacob Curry. Matthews had previously played in the Oceania Junior Championship.

He hit .311/.398/.347 as a college freshman, .264/.405/.319 as a sophomore and .345/.427/.469 as a junior with 45 runs and 20 doubles in 52 games. He tied for 8th in the Big South Conference in runs, was second in doubles and was among the leaders in average. He was All-Conference. He turned pro with the independent Great Falls Voyagers and hit .351/.448/.551 with 8 triples, 79 runs and 69 RBI in 78 games that summer. He tied for fifth in the Pioneer League in triples.

Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies, he hit .209/.310/.289 for the 2022 Winston-Salem Dash, being used as a utility infielder. He then was the starting shortstop and leadoff hitter for New Zealand in the 2022 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers. He flew out against Brazil's Gabriel Barbosa his first time up then reached the next three: hit by Barbosa, a single off Heitor Tokar and a double against Igor Kimura (Duncan Izaaks ran for him). Their other game, versus Argentina, he had one of their four hits off Federico Robles. He tied Nikau Pouaka-Grego and Max Brown for the team lead in hits, was second to Pouaka-Grego in OPS, tied Brown for the best average, led in OBP (.071 ahead of Brown and Daniel Lamb-Hunt) and tied Brown for third in slugging (behind Pouaka-Grego and Chayton Krauss).