Replies to post #208069 on Baseball Chat (BASEBALL)

[Eli's Gone]

Doubt Cashman will want to endure the further criticism of that deal---in the meantime, eyes are far east on Yamamoto and the 2nd coming of Matsui :-)

Yankees interested in Japanese closer Yuki Matsui
Matsui, nearly 28 years old, doesn't have much tape against American competition to go off of. He was on Team Japan's roster in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but threw only one inning during the tournament. Hey. Not all of us can be Shohei Ohtani. Hopefully, Brian Cashman got to watch him in person, too, while he was overseas taking in Yamamoto's no-no.

Notably, though, he did play his whole NPB career, to this point, with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the same team Masahiro Tanaka both left in 2013 and returned to in 2021. If the Yankees are interested in learning more information on this quirkly left-hander, they might just have a man on the inside (who's only a Gerrit Cole text away).

Matsui has 236 saves and a 2.40 career ERA in his Japanese career. And hey, who knows? If the Yankees let Wandy Peralta walk, perhaps they've found their new funky bullpen lefty in this surprising 167-pound package. If he becomes a World Series MVP like Hideki, all the better.

[BullNBear52]

It won't happen.