As MLB Opening Day Arrives, Former Torero Standouts Reflect on USD Baseball

As MLB Opening Day Arrives, Former Torero Standouts Reflect on USD Baseball

While the University of San Diego baseball season is well underway — and has been so since February — there are many former Torero players who are preparing for the opening of their respective professional baseball seasons this week.

Tops among ex-Torero professional players is Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant. The USD all-time home runs leader was the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year for the Cubs. That honor, accomplished in a season where he set a team rookie home run record with 26 and helped the Cubs reach the National League Championship Series, made for a memorable Major League Baseball debut.

In 2016, Bryant is expected to play a critical role again for the Cubs' championship hopes. Bryant will be the lone Torero playing on a 25-man MLB roster when Cubs open against the host Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on April 4.

Brian Matusz, a relief pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, and Sammy Solis, a reliever for the Washington Nationals, are both on their team’s 40-man roster, but neither will pitch for their MLB team at the onset of this season. Matusz is starting this year on the Orioles’ 15-disabled list due to a back injury, but is expected to return to the Orioles’ bullpen soon. Solis, who made his major-league debut last year, is pitching for the Nationals’ Triple-A Syracuse club.

Another former USD standout, starting pitcher AJ Griffin, has signed with the Texas Rangers after he was let go by the team that drafted him out of USD, the Oakland Athletics, in November. Griffin will begin the season with Texas’ Triple-A team, Round Rock, but he’s reportedly expected to join the Rangers when the big league club’s fifth starter spot in the pitching rotation comes up.

Another Triple-A pitcher with Torero ties is Paul Sewald, who is starting the year with the Las Vegas 51s, the New York Mets’ top minor-league affiliate.

While many Torero players work on getting themselves settled into their professional baseball seasons at the Double-A, Single-A and soon, the rookie league levels, all of them share a bond — they've been part of the Torero Baseball Experience.

Back in February, Bryant and Matusz were among the attendees for the Torero program’s annual “For the Love of the Game” season kickoff event. Both men, Torero baseball's two highest drafted players in program history, spoke about their time at USD and the lessons they learned under the tutelage of Coach Rich Hill and his staff in a new video put together by USD Athletics staff.