From Phenom To The Farm: Former MLB Pitcher Matt Wisler On Life As A Journeyman Reliever

Image credit: Matt Wisler (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)

Most top prospective college baseball players have a few priorities when committing to a
university. The facilities, playing time, development and path to pro baseball all come up in a
recruiting visit.

For Matt Wisler, committing to Ohio State came down to a factor a little more out of the
ordinary.

“They have a good dental program, which was something I was interested in,” Wisler said.

Sadly for dental patients in Ohio, Wisler proved to be too good at baseball to work with teeth.
The Padres selected him in the seventh round of the 2011 draft out of Bryan High School in Ohio. They signed him for an over-slot $500,000 signing bonus, but expected the righthander to be more of a raw
project.

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Wisler had other ideas, moving himself to Arizona during the fall of his draft year and hitting the
weights hard for the first time in his life—with immediate results.

“I topped at 92 (in high school), and that first year I topped out at 97,” Wisler said.

Not even initially expected to break from his first spring training with a team, Wisler slotted
right into the Low-A Fort Wayne rotation and proved himself as one of the surprises of the 2011
draft, logging 114 innings as a 19-year-old. He’d become a mainstay in the Padres top prospect
lists—and later the Braves, after an offseason trade in 2014—and rose rapidly through the system.
By 2014 he found himself in Triple-A at 21, back when it was less common to be young at the
level.

“Even ten years ago when I came up to Triple-A, I was playing with Jeff Franceour,” Wisler
said. “Ninety percent of my team was in the big leagues before, and a lot of guys with time.”

Wisler cracked the big leagues at 22 with Atlanta, but for the first time in his life, he struggled to find
success on the mound. He bounced back and forth from Atlanta to Triple-A Gwinnett for the
better part of two seasons, struggling to carryover the success from his early MiLB run.

“I don’t have many regrets in my career, but I wish I could’ve learned to be a little more
mentally tough earlier in my career, a little more resilient,” said Wisler. “I think that came from
the fact that I didn’t struggle much early in my career, and the first time was in a big league
setting.”

By age 25, Wisler was a full-time reliever. Once he found himself out of options, he became a
very young journeyman righthander, logging innings in seven different organizations over a four
season stretch.

“You kind of always have that hanging over your head,” Wisler said. “You know if you have a couple bad
outings you look over your shoulder and think, ‘Crap, hope I’m not getting released again.’”

In his late 20s, Wisler was finally able to settle in mentally to life in the big leagues, learning
how to relax on the hill and find success in the bullpen. He turned in a stellar 2020 season,
carrying a 1.07 ERA in 25.1 innings for the Twins, and after being acquired by the Rays in 2021.
helped the team into the postseason with a 2.15 ERA over the homestretch.

“(I was) finding peace in what I was doing, finding a way to slow the game down, and then that
confidence just builds and builds and builds,” Wisler said. “I found a routine to keep myself
sharp every single day.”

In March of 2024, Wisler retired after an age-30 season spent entirely in Triple-A. Ready to move on from life as a journeyman, he still relished the time he spent chasing a big league dream, regardless of how many stops the dream took him through.

“I always felt like I really enjoyed it,” Wisler said. “I was always in a really good headspace, was always
willing to put in the work.”

On the latest episode of ‘From Phenom to the Farm,’ former big league righthander Matt Wisler
walks through his 13 year journey in pro baseball.