Veteran right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka will retire following the 2021 season, as per an announcement from the Saitama Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball (hat tip to The Kyodo News). The 40-year-old last pitched during the 2019 NPB season and hasn’t since been able to get back onto the mound after undergoing cervical spine surgery last year.
Unfortunately for Matsuzaka, he will hang up his glove without one final appearance for the Lions, his original team. Matsuzaka signed with the Tokyo-based club following the 2019 season but injuries have kept him from fully capping off his career with a 12th season in Japan’s top league.
Of course, Matsuzaka’s status as a Lions legend was already established with his outstanding initial run from 1999-2006, as “Dice-K” rose from being an 18-year-old wunderkind to one of Japan’s best pitchers. That led to his move to North American baseball, and a high-profile posting process that ended up being won by the Red Sox during the 2006-07 offseason. The Sox paid a then-record posting fee of $51,111,111.11 to acquire Matsuzaka’s services from the Lions, and then inked the righty to a six-year contract worth $52MM in guaranteed money.
Given the big price tag and the high expectations, it is fair to call Matsuzaka’s tenure a disappointment, given how injuries and an increasing lack of effectiveness kept him from being a consistent rotation force. That said, it is also incorrect to call his contract an outright bust for the Sox, since Dice-K did help the Red Sox win the 2007 World Series and come within a game of another AL pennant in 2008. Matsuzaka posted a 4.40 ERA over 204 2/3 innings during his 2007 rookie season, and then a 2.90 ERA over 167 2/3 frames in 2008 that resulted in a fourth-place finish in AL Cy Young Award voting.
A rotator cuff strain limited Matsuzaka in 2008, and that was the beginning of a lengthy list of injuries that plagued the right-hander for much of the remainder of his eight seasons in the majors. The most notable setback was Tommy John surgery in 2011, which sidelined him for most of what ended up being his final two seasons with the Red Sox.
Matsuzaka then signed with the Indians in 2013 but didn’t make any big league appearances for Cleveland, and he then went to the Mets to toss 122 innings over the 2013-14 seasons before he returned to Japan. He appeared in parts of three seasons with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Chunichi Dragons, and though he continued to be limited by injuries, Matsuzaka did get one last day in the sun as a member of the 2018 NPB All-Star team. (The Hawks also won the 2017 Japan Series when Matsuzaka was on the roster, though he didn’t pitch that season.)
Matsuzaka retires with an impressive career resume that include a 3.04 ERA over 1464 1/3 NPB innings, and a 4.45 ERA in 790 1/3 innings in Major League Baseball. His list of accolades includes his World Series ring with the Red Sox, the 2004 Japan Series title with the Lions, two World Baseball Classic titles for Japan, the 2001 Sawamura Award as NPB’s best starting pitcher, seven NPB All-Star citations, and Pacific League Rookie Of The Year honors in 1999. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Matsuzaka on a terrific career.
Theres a name i havent heard in a looong time.
OK, Obiwan.
Do you know him?
Happy trails Dice-K.
You’re a polarizing figure for sure among former Sox, but, the mid 2000s wouldn’t have been as good as they were without you.
What is the word on that? What made him polarizing?
Dice-K was a very expensive contract. But he was important in helping win 2007 WS.
So some fans look at the $, others look at the ring. = Polarizing.
Half the fan base loved the guy, and always thought he would turn the corner and put the health issues behind him.
Half the fan base thought he was a huge waste of money they wish the team had spent on other players and places.
Remember, although the team won it all in 04, after that season ownership cheaped out and let Pedro walk. Then you saw a fan favorite like Damon leave for, of all places, the Yankees.
For two years the pocketbooks snapped shut. Dice-k was kind of a consolation prize after all that for the fan base, and, every time there was a hole in the team, fans looked at that 100+ million investment and what else could’ve been…
Except letting both Pedro and Damon walk ended up being good moves in the long run. Pedro had a great 2005 with the Mets then that was pretty much it. Damon’s contract demands and what he got were considered extravagant at the time. His leaving gave the Sox the flexibility to add Lowell and Beckett who were instrumental in the 2007 run.
Even at the time I thought letting each go was the right thing. Both were on the downside of their careers. Damon got 4/$52 from NYY which was a big overpay. And you saw what Pedro did the rest of his career. Not hard to see that both were the right moves.
GASoxFan
let Pedro walk. Then you saw a fan favorite like Damon leave for, of all places, the Yankees.
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When we let Pedro walk, we also let OCab and Mueller go. That was a coupe for the RS. In exchange for those three, and their salaries, we got back Ellsbury, Buchholz & Lowrie. I’d make that trade every day of the week.
And Damon was even easier. We had Ellsbury coming up, and was better as a rookie than Damon was when he joined the NYY. In addition, we picked up Bard as our draft comp. And, if that wasn’t enough, while Damon was still a good player, he absolutely could not play CF anymore. In a lot of cases, he could not reach 2B with his throws, and every single meant two bases for any baserunners.
Pedro sign a 4 year $52 million contract with the Mets and only really pitched well in the first year.
The Yankees offered $12 million more than the Red Sox for Damon. I do not think the Red Sox cheated out. I think the Yankees over paid, and Damon was not that good at the end of his contract with the Yankees….and that Ellsbury contract turned out great for the Yankees too. Hope they over spend for all the Red Sox cast-offs.
IRT Damon, it was worse than that. The RS only countered when the NYY made a larger offer. They offered just enough to ensure Damon would say no, but just enough to force the NYY to up the ante.
The funny part about the Damon/Ellsbury signings is that neither could play CF by the time the NYY signed them. So they had 11 years of ex-RS CFs, and the best CF they had was Granderson, who played in-between them.
Probably wouldn’t have won one of the most popular and celebrated championships in professional sports history. Every member of that 2007 Red Sox WS team should be applauded and should never have to buy beer in Boston.
he’s still playing?
Didn’t read the article, I see.
Looking at his stats after 2014 with the Mets, it looks more like a public relations tour that lasted entirely too long.
But whatever, get that money if people still want to give it to you.
Always a shame to see careers end or get derailed due to injury, but Daisuke still has some amazing accomplishments and memories to look back on. He achieved the dreams of millions of people.
Congrats on a long and successful career!
He created his own issues.by pitching in the World Baseball Classic after a full season with Boston. The owners and Theo Epstein told him not to participate. That his arm couldn’t take the extra work. he destroyed his own career.
Popularized the Gyroball
You mean the shuuto?
Or you could just call it what it is: a sinker.
Disagree, @Nebraska: circle change (formerly known as the “screw ball”). But to your greater point, yeah, nothing new.
I actually threw both the Shuuto and the Gyroball in high school. They were both two seam pitches. With the Shuuto (which I called the screwball), I would slide the middle finger alongside the index finger on the left seam and release the ball with an almost natural pronation. If I threw it 90 feet, it would break like crazy, but at 60 feet, not so much. My Gryoball was one knuckle and one finger and the ball would just spin like a football spiral. It hardly broke at all. Again at 90 feet, the bottom would drop out but at 60 feet, not much movement. It doesn’t take a baseball expert to figure out that neither of these pitches were at all effective other than acting sort of like changeups due to their diminished velocity. If I threw either pitch anywhere near the middle of the strike zone, I think we all know what happened next.
That’s because you didn’t throw hard enough.
Ya know?
If MLB moves the mound back, soft tossers will benefit. More room to work with. Imagine sliders like Ottavino’s, Romo’s, Roe’s et al with even more room to break. Quick. Better tell Manfred that teams’ll exploit that too.
This is one thing we are losing to the trend towards the genericizing of pitching we are seeing in MLB. Everyone is kind of the same:
95+ FB & a hard slider or curve. If they can also throw a passable change, pitching prospects go into the “multi-inning” bucket.
It’s the Ray’s-ing of all pitching. I get it. It’s effective. I do find it to be a little boring sometimes. That’s why I watch Darvish & Cueto when I get the chance. Sort of how I prefer Tenkara rods & yo-yo reels to Western gear…but I digress.
Anyway.
I hope this trend doesn’t spread to the Caribbean & Asia so MLB still has some variety on the mound.
Just so you know, the shuuto (which has movement similar to a mix between a screwball and a 2-seam, but more lateral) and the gyroball is a pitch that is thrown like a football (i.e. a spiral). I’m pretty sure Matsuzaka did not throw a gyroball consistently as that is what he said on throwing a gyroball around the time.
I remember some thought Yu Darvish would be Dice-K 2.0.
Darvish sure proved his critics wrong
How did he do that? By having one good full season in his career? For many years he was mediocre or injured after his one good full season. Last year he was good in a short year and this year he has been good for the first half. A far cry from proving all his critics wrong. He’s had 2-3 years total in his whole career. His value doesn’t come close to what he’s been paid.
He’s a k machine and the fastest pitcher in mlb history to reach 1500 strike outs. A great player 100xbetter than dice-k
Should have retired after 2008.
Dice-K was a frustrating pitcher to watch, he was constantly in full counts and threw far too many pitches over too few innings, but you can’t argue with that resume. I saw him pitch in Vero Beach in 2008, the same day a young kid named Clayton Kershaw pitched his first ever Spring Training innings.
@30 Parks I also saw him in Vero that day. Great memories
Right on, Blue. They did a Vin Scully tribute that day, too. Vin gave a speech to the crowd, from up by the broadcast booth, about the “fastest” player the Dodgers ever had in Spring Training (a young tryout that went to retrieve a ball, but encountered a cottonmouth snake and ran-off in a full panic). Great day – March 9th, 2008. I miss Vin.
Quite a nibbler, but he had great stuff and was a pretty good pitcher in his prime.
That was his biggest problem, he never challenged and therefore often left games early because of a high pitch count. He had one good year when he lived up to his contract, that was it.
Always fun to watch.
I can’t believe he was still playing he’s 40 but thought he was way older
This guy will go on and coach in Japan. Ichiro I figured would have gone onto coaching as well.
The Red Sox only real big expenditure out of Japan. Gave the Sox two good seasons in ’07 and ’08 and helped win a championship and didn’t do much else after…
Was 2008 the year that Tampa Bay came back from 7 to 1 in the last game of the season to win the division?
Boston lost to Baltimore I believe
Dice-K,
You’re welcome for your lifestyle.
Regards,
Hideo Nomo
Overhyped. Good when healthy. Yankees still waiting on kei igawa, even more overhyped.
I worked for the Japanese when those transactions went down. They all liked Dice-K, though they didn’t rave about him. When I asked about Igawa, the response was that they had no idea why the Yankees signed him, like he wasn’t even a real pitcher.
Of course, back then, the Yankees always wanted to do things to over-shadow the RS.
The gyroball might not have completely upended pitching as we know it, but he was quite good for a while there.
Strictly amateur hour on my part here, but I think the issue was that Dice was, by his nature, a nibbler. I think you can be effective being a nibbler, but it costs you pitch counts. If you never throw anything down the middle, you don’t allow a lot of hard contact, but you also walk more guys.
I think the RS pushed him to become more efficient, but that wasn’t his style.
Funny fact, but before he went down in 2011, he had three consecutive games where he allowed 1 ER in 19 innings.
Definitely one of the top 1 million 5-inning pitchers of All-Time.