Kiwi baseball star Jason Matthews is at a crossroads in his career and he’s hoping the stars will align to come back to New Zealand to play while also helping him achieve his dream of making it to the Major Leagues.
The 23-year-old has just finished his first season of pro baseball, winning the team MVP while playing for the Great Falls Voyagers (in Montana) in the Pioneer League.
It comes off the back of a tremendous final season playing college baseball with the University of South Carolina Upstate.
The Takanini-raised Matthews played for Counties Baseball and represented the New Zealand Diamondblacks as a teenager before heading offshore and now that he has begun his professional career, he hopes to be able to return to play for the Auckland Tuatara in the Australian Baseball League next summer.
“I wanted to play this year for the Tuatara if they had a team but obviously they pulled out for good reasons,” Matthews told Counties Sports Hub.
“Hopefully I can play for the Tuatara in the 22-23 season.”
Matthews has a new three-year deal with the Voyagers in Independent baseball in the United States but will be free to sign with a Major League organisation if he gets an offer.
That remains his primary goal.
“Three-year deal with the Voyagers – they said they always want to try and get young guys to affiliated ball.
“That was the goal – just to sign to get me to where I want to go.”
Matthews back story is moving – he lost both his parents at a young age and was raised by his older sister, who worked extremely hard to be able to send the budding young star to College in the US.
Despite picking up a bit of an American accent from his years in the United States, Matthews’ heart remains in South Auckland.
“I still talk to my family when I can,” he said. “I try to stay in touch with them a lot. I grew up in Takanini and moved to Papakura; school in Manurewa and Alfriston.
“Grew up playing softball, rugby and rugby league.
“I took the direction of playing baseball by myself and my sister allowed me to do that, and I am here today because of her.”
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