| 14 August 2009
I've heard quite a few rumblings about the Yankees not wanting to bring back Matsui in 2010 - most which center around the idea that he is creating a log jam at DH in New York.
After watching Godzilla beat up on the Red Sox since 2004, I wondered if he would be a nice fit in Boston. Here are the facts that make me think Matsui could help the Sox in 2010:
David Ortiz is our current DH... he's hitting .218 at the moment and there are already rumors that this might be his last year in Boston.
The Sox are using Casey Kotchman as the LHB off of the bench right now, and Theo admitted that the LaRoche trade made sense because Kotchman is now under our control for two more seasons. This means the Sox would probably prefer to keep a guy like Rocco Baldelli as the 4th outfielder because he bats righty - but the Sox are currently carrying Josh Reddick (LHB) as the 4th OF right now... and they seem fine with it.
Matsui is 53 for 157 (.338) with four homers and 14 doubles in his career at Fenway Park. He's also 11 for 21 (.523) with four doubles at Fenway since the beginning of 2008.
Matsui is a career .292 hitter with a .370 OBP... surprisingly similar to Kevin Youkilis' career numbers: .292 / .391.
Godzilla hit .323 at home in 2008, but he hasn't enjoyed the new Yankee Stadium as much - .234. That said... he has hit 11 homers while playing in the "wind tunnel" and 19 ding dongs on the season. A nice weapon to have for those 8 or 9 games we play in NYC each year.
With Matsuzaka, Okajima, Saito and Tazawa all in the organization, we clearly have the means to keep Japanese-born Matsui comfortable. Matsui has said that he wouldn't mind returning to Japan to finish his career, but if another MLB made an offer, especially the Red Sox, I bet he'd stick around...
Bottom Line: First order of business is extending Jason Bay... but adding Matsui for relatively cheap money (1 year, $4-6M) would give us a an emergency outfielder and cover us at the DH spot.
What do you guys think?
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