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Lefthanded pitcher Kevin Matthews, the Texas Rangers' first round pick in the 2011 draft, pitched in a game yesterday. This is his first real game action since 2012, as he missed all of the 2013 season due to shoulder surgery.
Matthews pitched two innings for the Rangers' Arizona League team, giving up 2 hits, allowing 1 run, and striking out a batter.
While shoulder surgery is oftentimes a death sentence for a young pitcher's career, Jon Daniels said in April of last year, when it was announced he was undergoing surgery, that because it was to remove a bone growth, and wasn't a labrum or rotator cuff issue, the organization was optimistic about his prognosis, and were hopeful that issue helped explain Matthews' disappointing performance up to that point.
Matthews had a 4.38 ERA in 74 innings in Hickory in 2012, walking 64 batters and striking out 66.
