Let the long awaited Matsuzaka-mania begin in New England!
Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Boston Red Sox agreed to a 6-year $52 million dollar contract on Wednesday night, mere hours before the negotiating window for getting a deal done and passing a physical would have expired. The Red Sox will now call the pride of Yokahama High their own - a very talented and highly touted Japanese right-hander who should instantly make an impact on the Boston starting rotation. Theo Epstein's grin can even grow wider knowing that he kept arguably the best talent available in the offseason away from his arch-nemesis, the Yankees.
Matsuzaka brings a lot of hype, a lot of expectations, and a lot of questions to a city that is desperately in love with their baseball team. The light that shines on Boston as a sports town is considered by many to be second brightest only to that of New York, and the question of whether or not a player can adapt to a new lifestyle, the media frenzy, and the pressure that comes with playing in Beantown is always on the lips of every baseball analyst, writer, pundit, and fan when a new acquisition comes to town.You only need to look as far back as 2005 and Edgar Renteria to see what happens when a player doesn't have the makeup to adapt to his new surroundings.
It has to be stated that the Red Sox got an incredible deal here. Theo Epstein, Larry Lucchino, and Tom Werner have to be commended for not only getting the deal done in time but doing so without caving into the demands of ultra-super-mega agent Scott Boras. They signed him for an average annual value (AAV) of $8.7 million - which in today's market has to be seen as a steal. The deal calls for a $2 million dollar signing bonus (go put a down payment on a house D-Mat) with a $6 million salary in '07, $8 million a season for the next 3 years and $10 million in the final 2 years. When you take into account the enormous $51.1 million posting fee that Boston is paying directly to the Seibu Lion's (which incidentally is 3 times their annual payroll) then their AAV investment in Matsuzaka totals $17.2 million - Jason Schmidt/Barry Zito money. Fortunately for the Sox, only the $52 million is accounted against the salary cap so they are saving tens of millions of dollars right there alone.
Peter Gammons is calling this the remarkable deal of the season.
Keith Law of ESPN writes that the Res Sox have positioned themselves even further in front of the teams chasing them.
Eric Wilbur of The Boston Glove wonders if Boston can handle the influx of invading Japanese reporters.
David Picker of the New York Times writes that Matsuzaka's blood type is Type-O which makes him a warrior, following a long line of successful Japanese professional baseball players with the same blood type.
Boston's NESN has wall-to-wall coverage of all things Matsuzaka.
In other baseball news, Toronto has made a good-faith offer to Vernon Wells to stay with the Jays, offering him a seven year $126 million dollar extension. This extension, should he accept it, would make him the 6th richest player in baseball. Wells is set to become a free-agent after the season, however, and some think he'll hold out and test the waters of free-agency, where he may be able to command closer to the $200 million mark depending on what the market is doing then. Another possibility that still remains is the Jays trading him for as much as they can get sometime either before the start of the season or during. The Dodger's are still looking for a big bat and have pitchers to trade...
On a more somber note, Eric Gagne signed with the Texas Rangers, turning down a similar contract offer from the Dodgers and choosing instead to make $1 million more. This was no surprise as indications were that this was going to happen. What confused Dodger's GM Ned Colletti was why Gagne told him in the off-season that he was willing to accept a home town discount if he didn't actually do it. As a Gagne fan who spent many top-of-the-9ths cheering for the lights out closer in '02 and '03, my disappointment of him leaving the team is supplanted by my hope that he'll actually figure out a way to revive his once great career and be at the very least a reliable major league pitching option again. After seeing him throw some 15 innings the last 2 years, I just don't see how that is going to happen. If the steroid rumors about Gagne are true, then there seems to be a very small chance that he'll be able to pull a Jason Giambi and somehow find his game while staying healthy. That still remains my hope however... and since he's in Texas the Dodgers fortunately don't have to worry about him closing many games against them.
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