Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 15, 2005
Godzilla Dollars or A Yen for the Greenbacks

The Yankees and Hideki Matsui reached a contract agreement tonight:

Matsui is to earn $13 million in each of the next four seasons, a baseball official familiar with the talks said on condition of anonymity because the team did not disclose the financial terms. Matsui was coming off a $21 million, three-year contract in which he earned an additional $1.5 million in performance bonuses.

It's a nice pay day for the Yankees left fielder. It took him a year to adjust to the North American major leagues, but he's posted 28 and 24 win shares the last two seasons. As a point of comparison, Vlad Guerrero posted 27 in each of the last two seasons, and I believe he's averaging $14 million a year over the life of his contract.

It's a good deal for both sides. Matsui's earned a great deal of respect in his three seasons and serves as a great example of how the game should be played. The Yankees lock up a player the fans love and the Japanese advertising that goes with him. Sure, Hideki's best years are probably behind him, but the contract is not outrageous and the term is short enough that Matsui shouldn't go into a steep decline. Now New York can concentrate on fixing center field.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:13 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Considering the money the Yankees take in from the marketing of Matsui in Japan (including TV rights) he probably nearly pays for himself.

Posted by: Jen at November 16, 2005 01:03 AM

Looks like Damon is asking for a 7 (seven!) year contract! Is he crazy? He's really not worth more than a 3 year contract at MOST. Of course, I'd rather have Giles play CF/RF with Shef playing RF/DH and Crosby picking up the leftover games in CF.

Posted by: sabernar at November 16, 2005 08:16 AM

Why is everyone so high on Crosby? Even YES play-by-play man Michael Kay thinks the guy's a fourth outfielder at best.

Posted by: Yankee Despiser at November 16, 2005 09:35 AM

YD: I don't know why people are high on Crosby. He hasn't ever shown me that he can hit at the Majors. But I guess what they Yankees figure is that with their lineup, they can afford to have one guy like Crosby who can't hit if it means a good defender in CF. Now, whether the guy's a good defender is beyond me.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at November 16, 2005 10:04 AM

Crosby had a really high Rate last season in CF (somewhere around 118 or so - 100 is average), though it was in limited playing time, so the number should be taken with a little salt.

I agree with BK - he'd be there for his defense and to give the old men a rest twice a week. I guess it all depends on whether the Yanks sign Giles or if they obtain a true CF.

Posted by: sabernar at November 16, 2005 10:24 AM
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