Former Wild Thing Isaac Mattson Called Up by Pirates
WASHINGTON, Pa. (Sept. 19) – For the fourth time this MLB season, a former Washington Wild Things pitcher has been called to the big leagues. This one is a return to the show for former Baltimore Orioles’ righty turned Wild Thing turned Pittsburgh Pirates righty, Isaac Mattson. Mattson had his contract selected from Triple-A Indianapolis, where he was recently named the Indians’ pitcher of the year.
Mattson, who had quite the journey to the big leagues the first go around with the Orioles, where he made his big-league debut with the O’s on May 7, 2021, pitched for the Wild Things in 2022 toward the tail end of the campaign. For Washington, he made 12 appearances and was 1-0 with a 2.51 ERA and a save in 14.1 innings. He allowed 10 hits and four runs with 23 strikeouts in that work. He was signed by the Twins organization from the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs roster (ATLL) in 2023 before signing this past offseason with the Pirates’ organization. He started the year and made eight appearances for Altoona (AA) before going up to Triple-A Indy.
In Indianapolis this season, Mattson was 5-1 with a 3.15 ERA in 29 games (three starts). He posted three saves and logged 60 innings to this point in Triple-A. He fanned 76 to 33 walks and allowed only 21 earned runs.
Noah Hiles wrote about Mattson’s journey for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette back in May. You can read that piece here. Mattson has joined the Pirates in St. Louis, where the Bucs are getting set for a tilt with the Cardinals at 7:15 p.m. ET.
The right hander joins lefty Austin Kitchen and fellow righties James Meeker and Spencer Bivens as former Wild Things called up to the Show in 2024. Kitchen was called up originally by the Rockies and did not appear in a game before being DFA and claimed by the Miami organization. He made his debut with the Marlins but was DFA by Miami and claimed by Seattle, where he’s currently on the Triple-A Tacoma roster. Meeker finished the campaign with Double-A Biloxi in the Brewers’ system after debuting June 7 for Milwaukee in the bigs. Bivens has spent the most time in the bigs, appearing in 23 games so far for San Francisco and starting two. He's 3-1 in Major League Baseball with a 2.89 ERA.
The Wild Things have now had eight total former players called up to the big leagues.
So it seems the 2024 season isn’t quite done being historic for the Washington Wild Things, despite the heartbreaking end in the FLCS earlier this week. The organization wishes Mattson luck in the next step of his baseball journey!
