Two top members of the Padres front office — GM A.J. Preller and director of player personnel Logan White — met recently with free agent third baseman Nobuhiro Matsuda, as reported by Japan’s Sponichi outlet (and as confirmed by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, on Twitter). The Japanese star is interested in pursuing a deal with a major league club, per Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter), who also reported San Diego’s interest.
Matsuda chose an opportune time to attempt the move across the Pacific. He hit 35 homers last season — aided, at least in part, by newly-reduced dimensions at his home park — and put up a strong .287/.357/.533 slash. That constituted a career year by many measures (home runs, OBP, OPS), but Matsuda has been a consistently strong offensive performer.
The 32-year-old slugger is a free agent, so his former NPB team — the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks — won’t be able to claim a release fee. It also means there are no time limitations on his signing.
For the Padres, it’s not entirely clear how pursuit of the veteran would serve the club’s overall roster construction efforts. It’s possible to imagine that Matsuda will be available at a reasonable price tag, and San Diego’s west coast location would hold obvious appeal. But the team already has several options at third, including Yangervis Solarte and Will Middlebrooks. The former could, theoretically, be traded or used in a reserve/super-utility role. And the latter is arguably a non-tender candidate.
The meeting occurred during a scouting trip to Asia, per Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune, so it’s probably not worth reading too much into the in-person contact — especially as contract terms were not discussed. On the other hand, it is notable that such key decisionmakers met with Matsuda, and Lin writes that the pair “used the meeting to express their interest in Matsuda.”
More 30 year olds for the Padres
Lol speak for your own team.
Yeah, on the Mariners we only consider a player a veteran is they are older than 33
Or I think that how it works…Lol
Cano, Cruz, Benoit, Smith, Gutieriez, Ianetta. 30 or older for the Mariners.
Shields, Mateo, Rzpenyski, Kemp, Upton Jr.
6 30yo for the mariners > 5 for padres.
Felix will be 30 next season
Would they end up trying to move solarte to a different position if they were to sign this guy?
gotta imagine Solarte’s left handed bat starts at 3rd more times than not with this guy aboard, the word is this guy can play some first base as well
Then what’s the point of even signing him?
If Preller signs this guy Solarte gets traded. Guaranteed.
Despite being a free agent, Preller is still working out in his head how many prospects he should give up.
Prospects with limited upside and/or injury history. He gave up 2 good prospects, turner and Ross. ( I’m a Nats fan but I don’t think there’s much argument there)
Yeah, and they would have both been a lot of help for the Padres right now if he wouldn’t have given them up. Turner would be the shortstop of the future and Ross could take kennedy’s place on the rotation.
I still don’t understand why he did that.
Myers plays himself into an All Star appearance in 2016 will help things make more sense
If he can play 10 games without getting injured
I don’t see where Matsuda fits on this team. We have Gyorko, Solarte and Spangy for a reason.