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The story
With Hideki Matsui named the new manager of the Yomiuri Giants, one thread comment suggested, “If he’s the one negotiating with free agents, who could possibly turn him down?” The discussion ranged widely: comparisons with legendary players built on his combined 507 career home runs in Japan and MLB, the reality that active players like Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki are now surpassing his numbers, an anecdote from Ichiro about Matsui’s impeccable manners, and even a head-to-head comparison with Hiromitsu Ochiai — leaving opinions sharply divided.
“If Hideki Matsui were the one negotiating with free agents, they might all sign with the Giants” — fans of rival teams are reportedly nervous about the “immeasurable effect” of the Giants’ new manager: “Who’s going to say no when Matsui himself is making the pitch?”
It’s a bright piece of news for Japanese baseball.
Hideki Matsui has officially become the Giants’ new manager. This long-anticipated dream scenario has finally come true, and longtime fans are buzzing with comments like “I’m definitely going to the stadium next year” and “Maybe I’ll watch the broadcasts again after all this time” — Matsui-mania has taken over.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Taguchi and Nori (catcher Atsuya Furuta's nickname) turned down Hoshino's.
They're all men of real character.
Hoshino would've turned it down too.
Sadaharu Oh — 868
Katsuya Nomura — 657
Hiromitsu Kadota — 567
Koji Yamamoto — 536
Kazuhiro Kiyohara — 525
Hiromitsu Ochiai — 510
Hideki Matsui — 507 (combined NPB/MLB)
Isao Harimoto — 504
Yoshinori Kinugasa — 504
Yamamoto and Ochiai are the really impressive ones — most guys on this list went straight from high school, but Yamamoto came from college, and Ochiai dropped out of college and came up through the industrial leagues (non-pro baseball) instead.
There's an oddly thin gap between Ochiai and Harimoto, don't you think?
Kiyohara, Harimoto, and Kinugasa are the only three whose career-high season still only hit the 30s.
So is that why he rushed into becoming manager — his shelf life was about to expire?
He's not just being passed by Ohtani — Suzuki's already ahead of him too. Okamoto and Murakami will probably catch up next.
It's not just Ohtani — the real killer is that Japanese position players in general are proving they can hold their own on both offense and defense in MLB, one after another. That's what kills the rarity value. By WAR, Seiya Suzuki has already topped Matsui's best season, and his career total is about to pass Matsui's too.
Ichiro, on the other hand, racked up so much WAR on defense that even by modern metrics he still holds the #2 spot behind Ohtani.
The Yomiuri Shimbun's ad budget is no joke.
Then why'd he only get 1 vote for the Hall of Fame? Talk about overrated lol
Probably because they won't have to watch Matsui throw out first pitches anymore. Nothing could make them happier.
— When did you feel his sense of dignity most?
Ichiro: "For example, at dinners, even when I'd show up in denim shorts and a T-shirt, Matsui would come in a jacket. He'd say, 'That's out of respect for the restaurant.' The more I heard him talk, the more embarrassed I felt about myself."
(lol)
Sounds like Ichiro's just the one with no manners.
Ichiro was also stunned that Matsui refers to himself as "watashi" (a more formal, polite way of saying "I").
Guess he's embarrassing himself off the field too, then.
Does Ichiro not know what a dress code is? Matsui lived in NY — there's no way he could've gotten away with ignoring dress codes there lol
People are hyped — the Showa-era-born Giants fans, anyway.
Sports Nippon ran it as the front page, ahead of both the Japan Series and the Kikuka Sho lol
No, people really are hyped. You just want it to not be a big deal.
The National Honor Award has been losing its prestige since 2013.
It's basically just a Yomiuri Shimbun award at this point.
Ohtani: "Oda, come play with us at the Dodgers."
He's going to the Dodgers 100%. Matsui only has influence over guys in their 40s and up.
By the time Oda makes his MLB debut, Ohtani probably won't even be playing half the games anymore.
Ochiai could never have signed with an MLB team — he had no position he could actually play defense at, so he's clearly a tier below.
[Career title counts in the three major categories]
Hiromitsu Ochiai — 20 NPB seasons
Home Run King: 5 times
RBI King: 5 times
Batting champion: 5 times
Hideki Matsui — 10 NPB seasons
Home Run King: 3 times
RBI King: 3 times
Batting champion: 1 time
Matsui probably couldn't have pulled off three Triple Crowns, but if he'd stayed in Japan he probably would've won at least one. He'd likely have ended up around 8 Home Run titles, 8 RBI titles, and roughly 5 batting titles, with a career total of around 670 home runs.
Ochiai's career total was 510.
Still, Matsui's a step up from Ochiai, who only ever played in Japan — Ochiai's more in the same tier as guys like Michihiro Ogasawara.
A brand only survives as long as people are under the illusion that it's the best. Joining the Giants used to be the absolute peak for a Japanese athlete.
These days MLB has taken that spot, but joining the Giants is still generally more popular than joining any other NPB team.
Even just looking domestically these days, teams like SoftBank or Hanshin seem to have more brand power lol
You think so? Depends on the position situation, but sure, plenty of guys would happily go to SoftBank. With the Giants your career stats don't even grow that much.
He's aged well over time, like a fine wine.
I mean, from the perspective of actual active players in the FA generation, it's probably a different story than from guys posting here, right?
Well, Matsui is a star. The four-straight-intentional-walks game (from his Koshien high school days) and the fact that his MLB numbers, while not jaw-dropping, came packaged with a World Series MVP — he's just someone blessed with a great story.
Background and key points of this discussion
During his playing career, Hideki Matsui recorded a combined 507 home runs in Japan and MLB, but he never won a Triple Crown and claimed the batting title only once. The thread’s comparison to Hiromitsu Ochiai (a three-time Triple Crown winner) is grounded in that gap. At the same time, Hall of Fame vote totals fluctuate year to year, so the “1 vote” cited in the thread reflects a single year’s result rather than a true measure of his overall standing as a player — a point that’s easy to misread. Also, in practice it’s usually team front offices and GMs who lead free-agent negotiations, not the manager personally sitting across the table. The thread’s disagreement comes down to two competing views: one holds that Matsui’s achievements have “lost their rarity” now that active players like Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki are putting up comparable or better numbers, while the other emphasizes his fame and influence, citing his National Honor Award and the Yankees’ official congratulations. Neither view is really grounded in how free-agent negotiations actually work.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Baseball] “If Hideki Matsui negotiated with FA players they might all sign” — the Giants’ new manager’s immeasurable effect: “Who’s going to turn Matsui down?”“
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