The San Diego Padres are also getting themselves an incredible talent from Japan, with Jeff Passan of ESPN reporting that the National League West division club has agreed to a deal with lefty reliever Yuki Matsui, who was also a teammate of now Los Angeles Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the last World Baseball Classic.
“Left-handed reliever Yuki Matsui and the San Diego Padres are in agreement on a five-year, $28 million contract, sources told ESPN, the first money spent by the Padres this winter after a free agent splurge last year.”
Padres make it official with Yuki Matsui
The Padres have also made the announcement official via X.
This move by the Padres injects life into their bullpen that lost both Josh Hader and Nick Martinez in free agency. Hader led the Padres in the 2023 MLB season with 33 saves, and with him very much unlikely to return to San Diego, it does appear that Matsui will be the man to fill the vacancy in the closer role.
The Padres have not been shy in dishing out large contracts over the past years, but playoff success still has been difficult to come by for the team. Nevertheless, the hope is that Matsui will play a key role for the squad right away, following a letdown in the 2023 campaign by the Padres in which they went just 82-80 to finish just third in the NL West and miss the postseason.
Based on what he's done recently in Japan, Matsui should be a force to reckon with on the mound in his first year in the big leagues. In 2023, he posted a total of 39 saves with a 0.89 WHIP and a 1.57 ERA through 57.1 innings of mound duty for the Tohuku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
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