Matt Waldron

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Matthew Lawrence Waldron

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Biographical Information[edit]

When pitcher Matt Waldron made his debut as the starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres against the Washington Nationals on June 24, 2023, he was the first knuckleballer to take the mound for a major league team since Mickey Jannis in 2021, not counting the occasional position player who had toyed with the tricky pitch in a pitching appearance during a blowout loss. He did not do badly, allowing 2 runs in 4 2/3 innings, both runs coming on solo homers, by Jeimer Candelario and Lane Thomas, but he and the Padres lost the game, 2-0.

He had been drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 18th round of the 2019 amateur draft, out of the University of Nebraska, where he was a conventional pitcher. He went 4-0, 2.96 in 14 games between the AZL Indians Red and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 2019, before being forced to sit out the 2020 season when the minor leagues were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was during that forced rest, on August 31st, that the Indians swung a big trade with the Padres, sending Mike Clevinger and Greg Allen to San Diego, along with a player to be named later, in return for six players including Cal Quantrill, Josh Naylor and Austin Hedges; Matt was the player to be named in the deal, heading to San Diego after the season, on November 6th. It was during spring training in 2021 that he showed the knuckleball he had been toying with to teammates, and the coaching staff was sufficiently impressed with its quality to encourage it to keep working on it and even use it in games. He was 3-8, 4.25 between the Class A Fort Wayne TinCaps and AA San Antonio Missions that year, then in 2022 was 5-10, 6.26 in 25 games for the San Antonio and the AAA El Paso Chihuahuas. While his record may not have been impressive, he did pitch 113 2/3 innings between the two stops, and the pitch was getting better. In 2023, he started the year at El Paso. Once again his record was not that impressive, at 1-6, 7.02 after 14 games, but the Padres thought that the pitch was good enough to fool major leaguers and brought him up to make his debut.

His big league debut was only a spot start, and he returned to the minors after the game, going 2-10, 7.31 for El Paso. Still, he was brought back to San Diego in August, starting against the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 19th when he was charged with a 6-4 loss. He then made a couple of long relief outings of 5 and 4 2/3 innings before getting the ball as a starting pitcher again facing the Houston Astros on September 10th. He was charged with a third loss, 12-2, although most of the damage came after he had left the game; during his time on the mound, he had limited the Astros to 4 runs in 5 innings. On September 16th, he recorded his first career win when he defeated the Oakland Athletics, 5-2, pitching 5 1/3 innings. It was the first big league win for a knuckleballer since Steven Wright had recorded his final win in 2018. He finished the year at 1-3, 4.35 in 8 games (6 starts), with 31 strikeouts in 41 1/3 innings.

He began the 2024 season as a member of the Padres, starting rotation. His status as the major leagues' only practicing knuckleballer brought him some publicity that would otherwise have eluded him. For example, in June, NFL superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes was caught on video imitating him while trying to make a football behave like a knuckler, and confirmed on social media that he had was trying to emulate Matt.

His twin brother Mike Waldron also played at Nebraska as a pitcher/infielder, but was not drafted.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Emma Baccellieri: "Meet the MLB Pitchers Keeping the Dying Art of the Knuckleball Alive: Mickey Jannis is among the next generation of baseball players committed to mastering the increasingly endangered pitch.", Sport Illustrated, March 24, 2023. [1]
  • AJ Cassavell: "Knuckleballer does something not seen in MLB since 2018: Waldron picks up the win, ending drought of flutter-ball pitchers", mlb.com, September 16, 2023. [2]
  • Brent Maguire: "Mahomes looking to MLB pitcher for inspiration. You won't guess who", mlb.com, June 12, 2024. [3]

Related Sites[edit]

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