Hopefully, you’re coming off a nice weekend as you read this. But was your weekend more interesting than the one Texas Rangers pitcher Matt Bush went through?
On Friday, the 30-year-old was called up to the major leagues, nearly 12 years after he was the No. 1 overall selection in the 2004 MLB Draft. Bush’s baseball story seemed destined to be the answer to a trivia question: Who was the high school shortstop picked by the San Diego Padres before Justin Verlander?
After signing a minor league deal with the Rangers last December, following his release from prison after serving three-and-a-half years of a four-year sentence, Bush pitched well in spring training and was assigned to the team’s Double-A affiliate in Frisco. He was impressive in 12 appearances, compiling a 2.65 ERA, five saves and 18 strikeouts in 17 innings. With their bullpen struggling to begin the season (a collective 4.09 ERA, .261 opponents’ batting average and .771 OPS), the Rangers decided to call Bush up to the majors in hopes he could provide some help.
On Friday, Bush made the major league debut that once seemed like it would never happen. He pitched the ninth inning of a 5-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing no runs and hits and striking out reigning American League MVP Josh Donaldson. But Sunday may have been Bush’s true welcome to the big leagues moment. In the top of the eighth, the right-hander plunked Toronto’s Jose Bautista in the ribs with a 96 mph fastball. Was he asked to hit Bautista with a pitch, presumably in retaliation for the slugger’s demonstrative bat flip in Game 5 of last season’s ALDS versus the Rangers?
Bush didn’t have any comment after the game on whether or not he intentionally hit Bautista. But the chances of deliberately plunking the Blue Jays outfielder seemed pretty good. It was Bautista’s final at-bat of the game and the Rangers weren’t scheduled to face the Blue Jays again this season. Putting the potential tying run on base to lead off the eighth inning didn’t exactly seem like solid baseball strategy, but if Texas really was seeking retaliation, this was the team’s last chance barring an October match-up. And the postseason isn’t really the right place to put runners on base unnecessarily, with so much at stake.
Unfortunately for the rookie, it fell to him to carry out this silly form of baseball justice. Welcome to the big leagues, kid. And if Bush was going to earn the respect of his teammates and manager, he’d have to do what was asked of him. Judging from Bush’s comments in the video below, he didn’t exactly sound hesitant to plunk Bautista. Maybe he relished the opportunity after viewing the bat flip seen throughout baseball last October. It’s certainly not difficult to imagine that he willingly accepted a chance to win favor in the clubhouse and stick with the big league roster.
Also, though Bush was fresh to the majors, he’s a 30-year-old who surely understood what he was doing and arguably had the maturity to handle it. This wasn’t asking a 20-year-old kid to plunk one of the most feared sluggers in MLB. Maybe Bush was better able to accept the consequences of his actions, given that his pitch set events in motion that led to an on-the-field brawl and Bautista taking a punch square on the jaw from Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor.
There have been flashier major league debuts for rookies, but how many were surrounded by such drama? And how many carried the narrative that’s followed Bush for the past 12 years? This isn’t just the story of a ballplayer finally making it to the bigs and getting a taste of The Show. For Bush, the story is so much more complicated than that, with this past weekend being the culmination of a significant fall from grace from which he may never fully pick himself up.
As if Bush’s failure to develop into the shortstop of the future for his hometown Padres — while Verlander emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball and an AL Cy Young Award winner for the Detroit Tigers — didn’t make him enough of a bust, off-the-field issues called into question whether or not he was even a decent human being.
Just months before being drafted, Bush was cited on an underage alcohol possession charge. Months later, after the Padres drafted him, he was arrested after a fight in a nightclub. (Bush never appeared in court to face arraignment, which triggered a warrant for his arrest.) In 2009, Bush was involved in an alleged assault with high school lacrosse players during which he was recorded yelling, “I’m Matt fucking Bush!” While he was eventually charged with misdemeanor assault, that was enough for the Padres, who designated him for assignment.
Bush bounced from the Blue Jays to the Tampa Bay Rays organizations, also converting from a shortstop to a pitcher along the way. But his baseball career appeared to be all but over in 2012, when he was involved in a drunk driving, hit-and-run crash in which he hit and ran over a motorcyclist in Florida. Bush was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading no contest to a DUI with bodily injury charge.
The likelihood of a MLB general manager taking a chance on Bush seemed low. Not only did Bush seem incapable of making good decisions off the field, squandering his great athletic gifts, but he was about to turn 30 years old. He had long passed the ideal age for a prospect, regardless of raw talent. Bush appeared to be past his prime, never mind the off-the-field baggage he also carried.
Released from prison last October, Bush signed a minor league contract with the Rangers in December. General manager Jon Daniels was initially among those baseball evaluators reluctant to take a chance on the shortstop-turned-pitcher, but changed his mind after meeting Bush and his father. The elder Bush was key to the player’s routine in staying on the straight path, staying with him as the former No. 1 pick attempted his baseball comeback, attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and performed community service.
Five months later, Bush was on the pitching mound at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, being asked — OK, let’s say allegedly — to throw a fastball directly at one of the best home run hitters of this decade, to retaliate for something occurred while he was still in prison. Bush wasn’t in the Rangers’ organization when Bautista hit his pivotal three-run homer off Sam Dyson in last year’s ALDS. There was surely some doubt as to whether or not he would play baseball again, at least for a minor league team affiliated with a major league organization. Even if Bush imagined such a possibility for himself, what hope could he really have after all that he’d squandered during the past 12 years?
Considering Bush’s mistakes and failures since being MLB’s No. 1 draft pick in 2004 — especially the harm and pain that he willingly inflicted on his victims — there are some people who don’t want to hear anything remotely resembling a redemption tale or feel-good story here. Others, of course, are always intrigued by such a narrative, of someone turning his life around and finally following through on what amounts to his third or fourth chance at a professional baseball career, not to mention being a good citizen. It’s too early to know if that’s how this story will play out. Bush has a long way to go, even just during the course of the 2016 MLB season. At the very least, his life and career have taken some fascinating turns since last December. That’s the story that can be told for right now.
