Another non-surprise this week was the Seibu Lions’ Tuesday announcement that the clulb had signed free agent right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka, who returns to his old stomping grounds at the Lions’ MetLife Dome just outside Tokyo.
The Kyodo News English language story is HERE.
After spending his final two seasons in the big leagues with the New York Mets as a long reliever and occasional starter, Matsuzaka joined the SoftBank Hawks in 2015, but his body broke down soon after making his preseason debut at historic Koshien Stadium. He ended up pitching one game in 2016 as a test to see if he would be useful in the postseason and allowed five runs, two earned, in one inning.
When his three-year contract with SoftBank expired, he left under peculiar circumstances. The Hawks released him but apparently wanted to give him a significantly lower salary than it had taken to lure him away from the majors three years before.
The reason for that speculation is that only one team, the Chunichi Dragons, gave him a tryout. This is kind of an old story in NPB, and I’m uncertain why, but the Dragons are the go-to team for players that other NPB clubs would like to black ball.
They were the only team to offer a tryout to Norihiro Nakamura after he left Orix in a contract dispute after his injury-plagued 2006 season. Nakamura was signed to a developmental contract by Chunichi. Ten other teams took a pass on getting a guy for next to nothing who would play eight more pro seasons — including five more as a regular.
Matsuzaka’s English language NPB page is HERE.
Although Matsuzaka did not pitch really well in 2018, he was relatively effective and was given NPB’s Comeback Player of the Year Award. The gap between good and effective had to do with his getting big outs with runners on base. When he was able to locate his cutter, Matsuzaka was reasonably effective, complimenting that with his changeup.
His good fortune did a U-turn this year, when he suffered a shoulder injury due to a fan’s overenthusiastic high-five during a meet and great at the Dragons’ spring training camp in Okinawa. Other issues followed and Matsuzaka was limited to just 5-1/3 innings.
