Orioles sign top draft pick Matusz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pitcher Brian Matusz, the fourth overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft, signed a four-year deal worth $3.2 million with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.
The left-hander, pitcher of the year in the West Coast Conference while playing for the University of San Diego, agreed to a Major League contract hours before the midnight deadline.
"It's been a long summer with all the negotiations going on but I'm just happy we got the deal done finally," Matusz, 21, said during a teleconference call.
"I really hope to do what I love to do most: play baseball. Now it's time for me to train myself and get ready for this fall."
Matusz, the first pitcher to be selected in the June draft, spent three years at the University of San Diego, going 12-2 with a 1.71 ERA in 2008.
"It was worth the wait," Joe Jordan, Baltimore's director of scouting, said.
"He's a very good addition to our organization. This guy is a guy that we needed. We had to wait, it was worth it and it's done. I think we all should just be happy."
The Orioles (58-62) were bottom of the American League East division going into Friday's action, 15 games adrift of the first place Tampa Bay Rays.
(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)
