Hiedki Matsui isn’t having a fabulous year, but it hasn’t been terrible either: .272/.361/.454 with 20 homers. He’ll likely want to play again in 2011, and I’m guessing some teams may be willing to give him a look.
One team he talked about yesterday was the Athletics, who he tells Susan Slusser, might be a good fit for him:
Matsui said he likes the Bay Area and he noted that it has a “decent-sized Asian community.” He also said that the vast Coliseum wouldn’t be any deterrent as far as he is concerned.
“You could say it’s definitely a big ballpark. There’s a huge amount of foul ground,” Matsui said. “But I’ve always had a positive experience there. I’ve hit pretty well there.”
And, as Slusser points out, he has. He doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense in Oakland, however, unless he’s willing to take a pretty sizable pay cut. After all, the A’s DH this year is Jack Cust. His production has been fairly similar to Matsui’s -- higher OBP, less power -- and he’s done it for close to $4 million less than Matsui made.
Given that Oakland let Cust basically walk last winter only to sign him, send him to Sacramento and then bring him back to the big club, it’s not like there are a ton of bidders for his services. They can probably pay him around the same in 2011 that they paid him this year, and stick with the devil they know rather than take a chance on one they don’t know. And if they truly want to improve an offense that really needs improving, they need to better than either Cust or Matsui.
Either way, I hope there is furious bidding for Matsui this winter. Because I really want to see my friend again.
