Right-handed relief pitcher Matthew Tippie has already had quite a journey, despite being signed out of Texas State as an undrafted free agent last July.
The Wimberly, TX native, and former first team all-state QB at Wimberley High School, went to Angelina College, a JuCo in Lufkin, TX, before transferring to Texas State ahead of the 2024 season.
He told me that being at Angelina “was a grind for sure”, adding that “Texas State was an amazing experience” and that he didn’t want to go anywhere else.
His draft process was “kind of stressful”, saying that he “had some workouts with a few teams” and “he had a good feeling about it”. He said that he “had a few calls in the middle of the draft, never really worked out. And then the draft ended, and then I went undrafted. I actually hit the portal and was gonna go play baseball for Alabama. I didn’t really want to go back to college, then my agent called me after the draft, and the Yankees signed me.”
He continued, noting that he’s “a big Yankees fan. My mom’s side of the family is from Jersey, and they grew up going to The Bronx watching Yankees games”.
The Sun Belt (as currently constructed) has produced a number of Major Leaguers over the years: Vinnie Pasquantino and Ryan Yarbrough from Old Dominion, Tommy La Stella and Taylor Motter from Coastal Carolina, Ron Guidry and Jonathan Lucroy from UL Lafayette, Chuck Finley and Ben Sheets from ULM, Juan Pierre and Myles Straw from South Alabama, Hurston Waldrep and Matt Wallner from Southern Miss., Brandon Lockridge from Troy and Paul Goldschmidt from Texas State.
Tippie noted during our conversation that Goldschmidt is “a monumental guy when it comes to Texas State”. The first former Bobcat to have his number retired after becoming the school’s leader in RBI (179) and home runs (36), Goldschmidt’s jersey is displayed on the right field fence at Bobcat Ballpark.
Goldschmidt bought his alma mater their first Trackman device, something that’s, on average, more than $40,000 and requires an annual subscription of over $1,000/year. For hitters and pitchers trying to get into pro baseball, that’s a significant piece of technology to have at your disposal.
Tippie had an exceptional senior year in 2025 with Texas State, throwing 46 relief innings in 26 games. He recorded a 4.11 ERA, which is good in a hitter-friendly environment, and had a K/9 of 14.28 and a BB/9 of 4.11, plus had an opposing batting average of .205.
He told me that he likes watching and emulating Tyler Glasnow, saying, “He moves really well. His stuff is disgusting. He’s tall. Glasnow has pitches he throws near the zone, around the zone. He throws hard. Mechanics are really clean. [I] really wanted kind of wanted to replicate that, but obviously, not everyone’s the same, so I kind of did what I did.”
Tippie throws a four-seam fastball that sits 92-94 MPH, a curveball that he says “is kinda like a slider-ish”, and a forkball. He told me that the fastball is “not really gonna blow you up, but I got some good ride/run with it”. He said his curveball is what “got me here”, and said that he “threw it 48% of the time at college last year, and I developed a lot of swing and miss with it.”
The forkball, however, is possibly the most intriguing pitch of his arsenal. He told me that he’s been throwing it since high school, but never threw it in a game, saying, “I would always just throw it to mess around, and then here, I kind of started throwing it a lot. It’s been probably my best pitch here. I have [a] 100% swing and miss on it right now, so it’s been really good. All my pitches are working really well right now.”
Continuing on the forkball, he noted that most of the Japanese guys throw it, with Mets pitcher Kodai Senga coming first to mind with his “ghost fork”. Tippie said that it started as a splitter, “and then I got here and threw it in the bullpen, and I was seeing like 400 to 700 [RPM] spin on it, and it was moving. No one could really catch it.”
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