MATT BUSH

When talking about the biggest busts in sports history, the name Matt Bush comes up quite frequently. He went from top pick to alcoholic jailbird in less than a decade and seemed like he was well on his way to fading into obscurity. But a strange thing happened with Matt, he cleaned up and on May 13, 2016 he made his Major League debut. He was drafted as an 18 year old and was a Major League rookie at 30. Bush was an alcoholic before he was a nationally renowned baseball player, chronologically and in order of significance. He had his first drink at 13. He spent three and a half years in prison because of alcohol. And while the story of Matt Bush is a tragic one to an extent, it is also a redemption story.

Matt Bush was drafted first overall in the 2004 Major League Baseball entry draft. He was a star shortstop for the Mission Bay High School Buccaneers in San Diego and was destined for a great career. Scouted as a "five-tool player" (a player who can hit for average, hit for power, run fast, throw hard and play defense) , Bush was poised to be a superstar. He had charisma, skills and a rocket for an arm. His senior season at Mission Bay High School in San Diego Bush hit for a .450 batting average that included 11 home runs and 35 RBIs. When not playing shortstop, Bush pitched. That powerful arm translated to a 94 mph fastball that was accompanied by a solid curveball. Bush finished his senior year with a 5–1 record that included two saves and a microscopic 0.73 ERA. In 2004 the Padres owned the 1st pick, and being that Bush was a local star, it made perfect sense for the Friars to select him. However, it was not without its controversy that Bush was drafted #1 overall. There were several other players considered to be the top guys in that draft, but the Padres chose Bush as a cost-saving measure. Two of the top prospects in the draft, Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew (both prospects with successful older brothers in the league) were represented by a man named Scott Boras. Boras was famous for being the toughest negotiator in all of baseball.

Player agent Scott Boras has been considered by some to be the most powerful man in baseball as, for a time, some teams would rather have skipped a player he represented in the amateur draft than have to negotiate a contract with him. In one of his biggest coups in 1996, Boras showed he understood baseball's rules better than some front offices when he got four drafted players he represented to be declared free agents because the teams who had drafted them failed to follow rules that said that a written offer had to be made within a certain time frame. Major League Baseball has since amended its rules to limit the leverage exercised by drafted players, but Boras continues to wield significant influence. By not being represented by Boras and being a local kid, Bush looked like the right prospect for the Padres to begin their recovery from a couple of really bad seasons. Interestingly enough, the Padres did have a 4 year stretch after drafting Bush that were relatively successful, but it was in no part thanks to the contributions of Matt Bush.

After he was drafted, Bush signed a contract with a bonus of $3.15 million dollars and while training in Arizona soon after, he ran into trouble with the law. Bush was only 18 years old at the time and flush with cash, but he was also a young man who lacked the sense to stay out of trouble. A bar called McDuffy's was the first place where Bush began to unravel. He and his brother allegedly snuck into the bar through a rear entrance and were discovered by security. When Bush was asked to leave due to the fact that he was underage, he refused and with his brother he started a fight with two of the bar's bouncers. It was even alleged that Matt bit one of the bouncers on the arm. When the dust settled, Bush was cited for assault, trespassing, disorderly conduct and underage drinking. It was not the start to his career that either he or the Padres envisioned when they drafted him with the first overall pick. The team president Dick Freeman had this to say after the arrest of Bush: "Certainly you don't like to have your first draft pick have an

incident two to three weeks after you draft him. That's not a good situation. The reality is, no matter how hard you try to figure out people, and understand them, these things happen."

Was Bush's case just one of "kid gets a lot of money and fame thrown at him too quickly" or was it something more serious? With most young athletes who get into trouble, the success on the field would go a long way to quieting the critics, but Bush did not have any success at first. He played terribly. In his first season, he had just 19 hits in 99 at bats, 26 strikeouts, no home runs and extremely bad fielding. Bush looked like an almost immediate bust. In 2005, he seemed to have an opportunity to bounce back. He was still just 19 years old and still immensely talented. But 2005 was not a good year for Bush either. He struggled at the plate again, batting just .221 and showing absolutely no power. He also hurt his team frequently, placing among the league leaders in grounding into double plays. Statistically, among the 100 players in the league who had the most plate appearances, Bush was #22 in At-Bats but only #58 in runs scored, #64 in hits, #93 in doubles, #86 in home runs, #93 in RBIs, #64 in stolen bases, #94 in batting average, #97 in on base percentage, and dead last in slugging percentage and OPS. In essence, it was a disaster year for him at the plate. In the field, it was another terrible season for Matt, with him committing 38 errors at shortstop, more than any other player in the league. Fortunately for Bush, the legal issues were not the main story that season. Unfortunately for Bush, his offensive issues were.

So how could Bush recover from such a disaster of a season? By breaking his ankle. In 2006, Bush broke his ankle during spring training and missed much of the season. He only played in 22 games and still showed no power and no improvement in the field. Bush was hearing the bust talk loud and clear by this point. In 624 career at bats in the minor leagues, he had just 2 home runs, 20 doubles, a.221 average and 115 strikeouts. In the field he had 910 total chances with 63 errors for a .931 fielding percentage. But Bush still had his cannon arm and the experience as a pitcher in high school. He played the first part of 2007 as a shortstop, but struggled mightily again at the plate and in the field and was converted to pitcher. That was the end of his career as an everyday player. He played 213 games as a full-time player and had 812 plate appearances, but only 158 hits, 22 doubles, 5 triples, 3 home runs and 70 RBIs. His career batting average was .219 and he had an OBP below .300.

As a shortstop, his defensive stats were atrocious. He committed 76 errors in just 1505 innings, a rate of one error every 20 innings. Comparing to other shortstops taken that year does not reflect well on Bush, especially considering that the Padres took Sean Kazmar Jr., another shortstop, in the 5th round that year. Kazmar was forced to play second base at first because of Bush's presence, but as Bush fizzled out, Kazmar Jr. emerged as a potential replacement and was far better in the field and at the plate. Kazmar did not have a successful Major League career, but he did get there as a shortstop for a "cup of coffee" (a short stint in the Major Leagues is referred to as a "cup of coffee") in 2008. Considering that Kazmar cost just $200,000 and Bush cost $3,150,000 for the Padres, it would appear that San Diego made a major mistake in drafting and paying Bush.

Bush could have been finished that season if not for his rocket of an arm. Bush still threw extremely hard and had experience as a pitcher in high school, so it was decided that he would be converted into a relief pitcher. He pitched well after the conversion, striking out 16 batters in just over 7 innings. But that promise quickly turned sour when Bush injured his elbow and had to get Tommy John (elbow ligament replacement) surgery. While injured, Bush was designated for assignment when a new player was signed to the team and the Padres were given 10 days to trade or release him. Soon after his designation, Padres officials learned he was allegedly involved in a drunken assault of a high school lacrosse player with a golf club. The Padres traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays understood Bush's previous misconduct issues and placed him on a zero-tolerance policy. A month after his trade to the Blue Jays, Bush got into an altercation with a woman at a party and reportedly threw a baseball at the woman's head. Toronto released him the next day.

However, on Thursday March 23rd of 2012, Bush borrowed a teammate's vehicle and was involved in a felony hit and run accident that nearly killed a 72-year-old man. His blood alcohol content was .180, which is over twice the legal limit in the state of Florida. He would later be sentenced to 51 months in prison following a DUI plea deal. This seemed like it would be the end of the Matt Bush story, but something interesting happened with him that we do not normally see. Matt Bush had a comeback. Sober for several years, Bush began to put the pieces of his life back together after prison. He got sober in prison, then when he was out he started working for minimum wage and held it together to remain sober. One thing didn't leave him though. Matt still had a cannon for an arm, and if anyone knows anything about baseball, it's that a 99 MPH fastball changes everything.

"I remember those times when I was sitting in jail, and prison, and just saying, 'There's no way I can live like this,'" Bush said "When I get out of here, there's no way. This is not living a life.'" After prison Bush was staying in a halfway house and It was there that he reconnected with Roy Silver, someone he had known during his time with the Blue Jays organizations. Silver was best known for his role in helping Josh Hamilton emerge from the depths of addiction to return to baseball, but he had worked with many others. While he mentored Bush, he brought a catcher's glove to a Golden Corral parking lot. They talked, Bush threw, and Silver recognized there might be hope for Bush, off and on the field. On Silver's recommendation, the Rangers gave Bush a shot, and somehow, improbably, he made it to the big leagues on May 13, 2016, roughly 12 years after being drafted and more than four years after the last time he had pitched against professional hitters.

Bush's story of redemption has been mostly successful. He got back to the Majors in 2016 and was still pitching in 2023 (prior to getting hurt and landing on the injured list) and was generally quite effective on the mound. Bush has been able to amass over 200 relief appearances and has averaged a paltry 7.6 hits against and an impressive 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings. Bush still has to always live with the things he did while he was under the influence of alcohol and there are many people who will never forgive him for what he did, but Bush shows that even when an athlete throws it all away, there's sometimes a way back. The talent Bush had is what got him drafted, what gave him his second, third and fourth chances, and what got him back on the mountaintop, without those gifts we would not be talking about Matt Bush and he would likely be just another one of those guys wandering around Pacific Beach looking for unfinished bottles of beer on the sand.