Matt Canterino #62

Matthew James Canterino...X: @cotton\_cante...Instagram: @cotton\_cante...wife, Kylie, married in December 2024...the couple has a dog, Harry...attended Southlake Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas...pitched collegiately at Rice University from 2017-19...in 2019, earned Conference USA Pitcher of the Year honors after recording a 6-5 record, 2.81 ERA (99.1 IP, 31 ER) with 23 walks and 121 strikeouts...also named to the C-USA All-Academic Team and NCAA District 7 All-Academic Team after posting a 3.97 GPA in mechanical engineering, while posting four 10-plus strikeout games and ranking 50th in the country with an 11.11 strikeouts-per-9.0 innings ratio...in 2018, named to the All-Conference USA First Team, Conference USA Academic Honor Roll and Baseball All-Academic Team while also playing on the USA Collegiate National Team... named First Team All-Area and the District 7-6A Pitcher of the Year by the Dallas Morning News as a high school senior in 2016...given the nickname “Woody” by former St. Paul Saints pitching coach Virgil Vasquez in 2019, after the Toy Story character and the native Texan’s penchant for greeting people with “howdy”...is also an amateur magician, with a small repertoire of card tricks; if he has a deck of cards on hand and someone asks nicely, he’ll happily do a trick...did a lot of hiking and camping during the pandemic...likes to play both video – League of Legends, etc. – and board games, particularly Catan and Pandemic...while rehabbing from injury in Fort Myers in 2021 introduced Catan to players at the Twins’ academy; uses his collection of expansion packs to make the games more fun and admitted he’s one of the most cutthroat Catan players...if he wasn't a baseball player, he would be a mechanical engineer...favorite non-baseball sports team is the New York Jets...favorite food to make is chicken piccata...if he could play any TV/movie character, it would be Benoit Blanc, the detective from Knives Out played by Daniel Craig...enjoys playing pickleball...is very passionate about Shriner's Hospital after meeting a family that was affiliated with them in college...Matt is known for his collection of PEZ dispensers – including ones of Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story – and his consumption of PEZ candy during games; Matt admitted that he had a five-pound, six-flavor bag of PEZ unopened and ready prior to the start of 2022 minor league spring training, and that he consumes, on average, three PEZ per game (roughly one every three innings), regardless if he’s pitching or not, so that five-pound bag will last him about 100 games...his favorite PEZ flavors are, in order from best to worst, lemon, grape, orange, cherry, strawberry and raspberry... his PEZ habit started around 2019...participated in 2023, '24 and '25 TwinsFest at Target Field in January.

2024

Did not pitch and spent entire season on 60-day Injured List with right rotator cuff strain.

2023

Missed entire season recovering from Tommy John surgery performed on right elbow on Aug. 24, 2022...Ranked number six prospect in Twins organization entering 2024 by Baseball America. 

2022

Ranked ninth-best prospect in Twins system by MLB.com, entering 2022...finished season in same spot....Spent most of season with Double-A Wichita...Posted an 18.0-scoreless inning streak from April 19-May 17....Allowed just one home run on the season while pitching for the Wind Surge, that coming on May 17 vs. Springfield (Nick Dunn)....Struck out six batters-or-more in five of his 11 games for the Wind Surge....Placed on 7-day Injured List on June 8 with a right elbow strain...pitched in two games on rehab assignment with FCL Twins from July 25-30....Had Tommy John surgery on right elbow on Aug. 24, ending his season...Held right-handed hitters to a .122 average, compared to .196 vs. left-handed hitters....added to Twins 40-man roster on Nov. 15....Ranked as having best fastball in Twins system by Baseball America, entering 2023...Ranked as 13th-best prospect in Twins system by MLB.com, entering 2023.

2021

Ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the Twins system by Baseball America entering the season...was a non-roster depth player at major league spring training...allowed one unearned run in 4.2 innings (2 H, 5 BB, 7 K) across four relief appearances, with one save...assigned to High-A Cedar Rapids to start the season...struck out 10 batters in back-to-back starts May 21-28...named Twins minor league Pitcher of the Week on May 23...placed on 7-day Injured List with a right elbow sprain from June 5-Aug.14...made one rehab appearance with Low-A Fort Myers on August 8 (2.0 IP, 2 K)... limited to just six starts on the season because of injury, including his rehab start...went 1-0, 0.78 ERA (23.0 IP, 2 ER) with four walks and 45 strikeouts in those six outings...ranked as the ninth-best prospect in the Twins system by Baseball America following the season.

2020

Did not play professionally because the minor league season was cancelled due to COVID-19... ranked as the 11th-best prospect in the Twins system, per MLB.com...added to the Twins’ 60-man player pool in Sept...participated in Twins instructional league in Fort Myers, FL in Oct.

2019

Began professional career at the Rookie level with GCL Twins where he appeared in two games between July 13 and July 19 before being transferred to Low-A Cedar Rapids...made five starts for the Kernels between Aug.3 and Aug. 20...ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the Twins farm system by Baseball America.