MATSUI READY TO COMPETE
Reliever wants to ‘build trust’ of teammates as he seeks late-inning role
Yuki Matsui led Nippon Professional Baseball in saves each of the last two seasons and recorded 236 over a decade with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
But the first save didn’t come until after spending all of his age-18 season moving between the Golden Eagles’ rotation and bullpen, and the 28-year-old left-hander expects to have to prove himself again in San Diego, regardless of the way A.J. Preller laid things out during a visit to Japan at the start of free agency.
“The fact of the matter is I haven’t (thrown) a single pitch in the big leagues yet, so maybe it’s not realistic to say I’ll be pitching in the ninth inning as we start the season,” Matsui said through interpreter Shingo Horie on Tuesday’s introductory video conference call with San Diego media. “But I like to just go in there when given the opportunity, get outs and sort of build trust from the team and my teammates, and hopefully I’m in one of those highleverage situations to pitch in games.”
The ninth inning is certainly up grabs.
Robert Suarez’s hefty contract
likely makes him the clubhouse leader to open the season as the closer, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn the Padres have an appetite for flexibility in the back of the game after Josh Hader’s usage rules seemingly tied one arm behind their backs throughout the team’s disappointing 2023 campaign.
New manager Mike Shildt all but confirmed as much last week — “I don’t know that we’re going to establish this absolute, rubberstamp, this-is-the-closer kind of deal” — and Preller, after introducing himself in Japanese, certainly
relayed that the Padres were looking to use Matsui one way or another in the back of games.
That’s why he could earn as much as $33 million through various incentives and opt-in over the next five years. Of course, Suarez figures to have a say with a much bigger $46 million contract. WooSuk Go’s résumé suggests he too could factor late into games as the Padres reimagine the back of their bullpen after allowing Hader, Luis Garcia and Nick Martinez to walk as free agents and trading away Scott Barlow.
The first of their winter additions, Matsui was an offseason priority. The Padres’ full-court press included conversations with Padres front office executives Hideo Nomo and Acey Kohrogi, Japanarea scout Keiji Uezono, once Matsui’s teammate, Horie and, of course, Yu Darvish, a teammate during Japan’s World Baseball Classic title run last year.
Though Matsui talked with a number of teams, the Padres’ offer was the first and Darvish’s presence in the clubhouse was influential.
“Yu mentioned the city of San Diego is beautiful,” Matsui said. “The weather is top notch … and he did also mention … that the stadium is filled every night, and it’s just super awesome to be playing in a full stadium.
“That’s something that’s very motivating.”
Perhaps as motivating as this opportunity is on the heels of what he believed was a disappointing
personal showing in the WBC.
While he certainly has hardware that matches what Darvish and fellow Japanese titans Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki took home last spring, Matsui pitched just one inning in the tournament.
“It was a great experience to be on that awesome team and to win the WBC,” Matsui said. “For myself, I wasn’t able to perform the way I wanted to, so there’s a little bit of disappointment there. But I’ve turned that into motivation. I’m really motivated now, more so than ever, to come here, come to the States, come into the big leagues and to be my best.”
It’s been a goal of his for quite some time. He and the Golden Eagles discussed a jump to the States via the posting system before the 2020 season only for the two sides to agree for him to complete 10 years with the club, Matsui said.
But Matsui didn’t exactly pine for the opportunity that came this winter. He went to work.
“It wasn’t really much of a ‘wait’ for me, like struggling, (waiting) to come here,” Matsui said. “… I really
had to get ready and hone my craft to be a player to be wanted by these big-league teams. I was working on my craft, building my body and doing all that I can so I can make it up here.”
As a lefty, it’s not lost on Matsui that one of his biggest jobs could very well be jogging out of the bullpen to take on the left-handedhitting Ohtani as the Padres try to keep up with the Dodgers in the NL West. He certainly knows the Dodgers, with the newly signed Ohtani and Yamamoto, won’t be caught in the interest department.
But Matsui expects to impact the race in the majors, however he’s used.
“I’ll be honest with you: In Japan it seems like it’s Dodgers — all Dodgers now,” Matsui said. “But we’re in the same division and obviously they’ve been winning the division for an extended period of time now, so we really need to step it up and stand up and beat those guys.
“Hopefully I can be a part of this team to help do that.”