Apr 20, 2015 2 min read

Tanner Mathis, a former outfielder in the Houston Astros organization, signed a contract with the Washington Wild Things.

A former standout at the University of Mississippi, Mathis was originally drafted by the Astros in 2012 but declined the offer to finish out his four-year career at Ole Miss.

After graduation, Mathis signed a free agent contract with the Astros and spent three years in the organization. Mathis played in 136 career minor league games with the Astros. He had 439 at-bats and hit .267 with 17 doubles, four triples, three home runs and 40 RBI. Mathis also stole 17 bases and had a .344 slugging percentage.

The Louisiana native played parts of the 2014 season with the Lancaster Jethawks in Advanced-A and Quad Cities River Bandits in Class A. Mathis played in 40 games with the Jethawks and had a .258 batting average with seven doubles, two triples, two home runs and 19 RBI before a mid-season promotion to the River Bandits. In 36 games, he had 119 at-bats and a .261 average. He hit seven doubles, two triples and collected seven RBI and stole seven bases.

In his rookie season, Mathis played with the Greenville Astros, Houston’s Rookie team in the Appalachian League. He appeared in 60 games and batted .277 with three doubles, one home run and 14 RBI.

At Mississippi, Mathis started all 63 games in the outfield and hit .359 with 12 doubles and a triple. He knocked in 23 runs and scored a team-high 50 runs. He also posted a team-leading .460 on-base percentage and with 39 walks and seven hit by pitches.

The Wild Things open the season against the Frontier League reigning champions, the Schaumburg Boomers, Friday, May 15 at 7:05 p.m.