Matt Koch


Matthew David Koch is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball. He has played in Major League Baseball for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Career

New York Mets

Koch attended Washington High School in Cherokee, Iowa, and played for the school's baseball team. The Boston Red Sox selected Koch in the 37th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball draft. He did not sign and attended the University of Louisville, where he played college baseball for the Louisville Cardinals. In 2011, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He was drafted by the New York Mets in the third round of the 2012 MLB draft.

Arizona Diamondbacks

On August 30, 2015 the Mets traded Koch and Miller Diaz to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Addison Reed. The Diamondbacks added him to their 40-man roster after the season. Koch was promoted to the Major Leagues for September call ups in 2016. In 7 games for the D'Backs, he was 1–1 with 1 save. The following season he pitched the whole season at Reno. In 2018, he began the season in AAA but after an injury to the Diamondbacks rotation, Koch was called up. In his first 6 starts, he was 2–1 with an ERA under 3 but struggled afterwards, leading to his demotion to AAA with the return of Shelby Miller. On June 20, he was demoted to AAA for a second time. On the season, Koch finished with a 5–5 record with an ERA of 4.15 in 19 games, 14 starts. Koch was designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks on April 28, 2019. He elected free agency on November 7, 2019.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows

On December 13, 2019, Koch signed a one year deal with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball.