Padres Sign Yuki Matsui To Five-Year Deal

The Padres have signed left-hander Yuki Matsui to a five-year contract, the membership has introduced. Matsui and the Padres had been reportedly close to a deal earlier this week. ESPN’s Jeff Passan experiences that Matsui will obtain $28MM assured over the lifetime of the contract, which incorporates opt-outs after the third and fourth seasons of the deal in addition to an damage clause that may convert the fifth 12 months of the contract right into a membership possibility value $7MM if Matsui suffers a “severe” elbow damage through the lifetime of the contract.

The deal represents San Diego’s first vital buy-side transfer of the offseason, and their first main transfer since buying and selling star slugger Juan Soto and middle fielder Trent Grisham to the Yankees earlier this month for a five-player package deal headlined by right-handers Michael King and Drew Thorpe. It’s a considerably uncommon deal for a reliever; right-hander Robert Suarez’s settlement with the Padres and the record-breaking deal between star nearer Edwin Diaz and the Mets, each of which had been signed final offseason, are the one contracts without spending a dime agent relievers to surpass 5 years.

Matsui landed at #43 on MLBTR’s annual Top 50 MLB free agents list, the place we projected him for a two-year, $16MM deal.  Matsui almost doubled that assure, although the typical annual worth of his deal is available in at simply $5.6MM, properly beneath the $8MM MLBTR projected him for over a two-year apct. Regardless of the weird size of the deal, the gamble is an comprehensible one for the Padres to make. The deal covers Matsui’s age-28 by means of -32 seasons, along with his first opt-out alternative coming after Matsui’s age-30 marketing campaign in 2026. The lowered AAV of the deal was certainly significantly interesting to the Padres, who’re reportedly hoping to remain underneath the luxurious tax in 2024. Given these monetary constraints, Matsui’s deal represents a cheaper different to reuniting with reduction ace Josh Hader, who MLBTR projected for a whopping six-year, $110MM assure on the heels of a dominant season as San Diego’s nearer.

Whereas Matsui can’t be moderately anticipated to match Hader’s unimaginable manufacturing final season (1.28 ERA and 33 saves in 56 1/3 innings), the lefty has put collectively a wonderful profession abroad in his personal proper. Matsui’s spent the previous ten seasons pitching for Nippon Skilled Baseball’s Tohuku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Throughout his NPB profession, Matsui has racked up 236 saves in 501 appearances whereas incomes 5 All Star nods. In 659 2/3 innings of labor throughout his profession, Matsui sports activities a sterling 2.40 ERA with a 31.9% strikeout charge. He’s been much more spectacular over the previous three seasons, a mixed 1.42 ERA and a 36.4% strikeout charge throughout 152 innings throughout that point.

Matsui was a frequent topic of MLBTR’s NPB Players to Watch collection all through the 2023 season, the place Dai Takegami Podziewski mentioned Matsui’s four-pitch combine that features a 92-94 mph fastball that touches 96 together with a splitter, slider, and curveball whereas additionally noting that Matsui reportedly struggled to regulate to the MLB ball whereas taking part within the World Baseball Basic final spring. Clearly, the Padres had been extra enticed by Matsui’s deep pitch combine and spectacular velocity for a lefty who’s listed at simply 5’8” and 167 kilos than they had been involved by his struggles to regulate to the ball used within the majors earlier this 12 months.

Whereas the addition of Matsui shores up a Padres bullpen missing in certainty, there’s loads left for president of baseball operations A.J. Preller and his entrance workplace to do in the event that they hope to return to competition in 2024. One other set-up arm to pair with Matsui and Suarez behind the bullpen could be useful, and at the very least another beginning pitcher who can step into the void left by the departures of Blake Snell, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, and Nick Martinez this offseason alongside King seems to be all however obligatory.

On the hitting facet of issues, the Padres have simply two outfielders on their 40-man roster for the time being in Fernando Tatis Jr. and fourth outfielder Jose Azocar, that means they’ll have to make a number of additions to the lineup to cowl the 2 vacant outfield spots and DH, which lacks a transparent starter following the deal that despatched Matt Carpenter and his wage to Atlanta earlier within the month.

That’s a hefty procuring record for any membership, but it surely’s particularly daunting for a Padres membership that initiatives for a $210MM luxurious tax payroll per RosterResource. If the Padres are certainly intent on staying underneath the primary tax threshold of $237MM in 2024, that provides them slightly below $27MM of payroll area left to work with this offseason as they give the impression of being to fill the remaining holes within the lineup and pitching employees. Whereas the addition of Matsui is a step in the correct path that didn’t eat into the membership’s monetary capabilities too excessively, the Padres clearly nonetheless have loads of work to do earlier than they’re able to contend in an ever-improving NL West subsequent 12 months.