Daniel Zebulon Matthews...X: @ZebbyMatthews...Instagram: @zebby_m...He and his wife, Kendall, were married in November 2023 in Cashiers, N.C...The couple are high school sweethearts and went to their senior prom together...Attended Smoky Mountain High School in Sylva, N.C...Began collegiate career at Walters State Community College in 2019...Transferred to Western Carolina University, where he pitched from 2020-22, going 13-9 with a 3.58 ERA (183.1 IP, 73 ER), 30 walks and 211 strikeouts in 35 games (24 starts)...Has always gone by Zebby; the only people who call him Daniel are his parents when they're angry with him...Has two older brothers, Sammy and Chris...Matthews went on 2025 Twins Winter Caravan in January along with Austin Martin, Justin Morneau and Cory Provus; they traveled to Rochester (Minn.), La Crosse (Wis.), Welch (Minn.), St. Cloud (Minn.) and Fargo (N.D.)...Participated in 2025 TwinsFest at Target Field in January.
2024
Entered as No. 15 prospect in Twins system per Baseball America, and No. 24 per MLB.com...Also named as having the best fastball and best control among all Twins Minor Leaguers by Baseball America...Began season with High-A Cedar Rapids and issued zero walks across four starts for Kernels...Named Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Week three times on season: April 14 with Cedar Rapids, April 29 with Cedar Rapids and May 12 with Double-A Wichita...Named Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April, going 3-0, 2.30 ERA (15.2 IP, four ER) with no walks and 19 strikeouts in three starts for Kernels...Named Midwest League Pitcher of the Week on May 5, making one start against Peoria, tossing seven scoreless innings with three hits allowed, no walks and nine strikeouts...Promoted to Double-A on May 6...Struck out season-high nine batters in back-to-back starts: May 3 with Cedar Rapids vs. Peoria (7.0 IP) and May 9 with Wichita vs. Arkansas (6.2 IP in his Double-A debut)...Went 2-1, 1.95 ERA (55.1 IP, 12 ER) with six walks and 63 strikeouts in 10 games (nine starts) for the Wind Surge from May 9-July 9...Named Texas League All-Star after season...Promoted to Triple-A St. Paul on July 15...Made four starts for the Saints from July 21-Aug. 8, going 10-2, 5.68 ERA (19.0 IP, 12 ER)...Had contract selected by Minnesota on Aug. 13...Became first Twins pitcher since Randy Dobnak in 2019 to pitch at four separate levels of the Twins organization, including at Minnesota, in one season...Made Major League debut on Aug. 13 vs. Kansas City, allowing two runs on five hits in five innings pitched, with no walks and five strikeouts, while earning the victory...First career strikeout was of Bobby Witt Jr. in first inning...He and David Festa (first win: June 27 at ARI) became the third pair of rookie starters in Twins history to win their debuts in the same season...The other two were Darrell Jackson and Roger Erickson in 1978, and Kyle Gibson and Andrew Albers in 2013...One of three rookies the Twins relied on in five-man rotation down the stretch as club was seeking a postseason berth (also: David Festa and Simeon Woods Richardson)...Went 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA (15.0 IP, five ER), two walks and 13 strikeouts in first three Major League starts from Aug. 13-25, but allowed nine runs on 10 hits in two innings pitched in fourth start on Aug. 31 vs. Toronto...Combined to go 7-7 with a 3.74 ERA (134.2 IP, 56 ER), 18 walks, 157 strikeouts and a .243 opponents' batting average in 27 games across four levels of Twins organization, including Minnesota...Led all Minor League pitchers (minimum of 90.0 innings pitched) in strikeout-to-walk ratio (16.29), walks-per-9.0 innings (0.65) and WHIP (0.87), and ranked second in fielding independent pitching (2.31)...Named Jim Rantz Award winner for Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year...Went 6-3 with a 2.60 ERA (97.0 IP, 28 ER), seven walks, 114 strikeouts, a .212 opponent batting average and a 0.87 WHIP in 18 games (17 starts) in the 2024 Minor League season, split among High-A Cedar Rapids (four games, all starts), Double-A Wichita (10 games, nine starts) and Triple-A St. Paul (four games, all starts)...Ranked by Baseball America as fourth-best prospect in Twins system entering 2025...Also ranked as having the best fastball and best control...Later ranked by same publication as 73rd-best prospect in baseball entering 2025.
