Kingstonian Matt Brash’s meteoric rise to Major League Baseball

Very few people can rightly attest that their career has already been a skyrocket of prosperity by the young age of 23, but Kingston’s own Matt Brash can count himself among those few with such bragging rights – if he so chose.

This last Friday, Sept. 24, Brash was promoted to AAA status, and without playing even a single game at that level, was again promoted and branded with #47 on Tuesday for the Major League Baseball team Seattle Mariners, as relief pitcher for Tyler Anderson in the battle against the infamous roundhouse team, Oakland Athletics.

The proficient righty has been making a name for himself in baseball even before his college days as a Junior class pitcher for the Niagara Purple Eagles, where he not only garnered an impressive educational degree in sport management, but also tallied an intimidating 5 – 1 fan rate as a sophomore, and became the 4th player in the university’s lush history to be named MAAC Rookie of the Year in 2017, despite it being only his freshman year.

While in highschool at Bayridge Secondary School, Matt delighted Kingstonians by pitching the school to its first two championships, and went on to play with Kingston Thunder. At this level, he allowed only the lucky number of 13 runs for opposing teams, earning him the PBR rating of 6th overall best pitcher in the province of Ontario.

As a result of his achievement, Brash was a 4th round pick in 2019 for the major league team San Diego Padres and soon after, speculation of trading in position of other major league rosters spread like wildfire among sports journalists in awe of Brash’s quick ascent through the ranks.

It came as no surprise when Seattle Mariners picked him up on Tuesday, as they continue their trend of acquiring wildcard rookies to throw off opposing batters. In this regard, it seems that Brash was designed for this deceptive pitching role – his 6 foot 1 frame, combined with longer arms and legs that seemingly clash with his trunk and overall weight of 170 lbs., make his pitches hard to read at the best of times, let alone when utilizing his famously tricky slider.

Brash’s fastball is also a force to be reckoned with, regularly clocking in at a whopping 95 miles per hour, or 160 km per hour.

While Brash simmered in the bullpen in Tuesday’s game, his team did score a victory against Oakland A’s with a 4 – 2 without him, despite many hard hits at the start of the game, firing anticipation for a bold (Brash, even) move by the Mariners to switch Anderson, which would have had Matt Brash edge-sitting as playing relief.

After all, to add him to the roster this late in the game hinted strongly that he would be – well, used late in the game.

Even so, Seattle Mariners’ 2nd place in the AL West status certainly warrants a feather in Matt’s already impressively plumed cap.

As for his future prospects, if the meteoric trend continues, Matt may solidify his status among Canadian titans of sport nationwide. With Kingston sports fans cheering the loudest from home for their rising hero Matt Brash, who’s to say he can’t?