SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres have signed left-handed reliever Yuki Matsui to a five-year contract, President of Baseball Operations & General Manager A.J. Preller announced today.
Matsui began pitching in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) at 18 years old and recorded 236 saves in 501 career appearances, all with the Tohuku Rakuten Golden Eagles, becoming the youngest player ever to reach the 200-save plateau. The 28-year-old was a five-time All-Star and recorded a 2.40 career ERA (176 ER, 659.2 IP) with a 1.11 WHIP (295 BB, 436 H) and 860 strikeouts (11.7 SO/9.0 IP) over 10 seasons (2014-23). He led the Pacific League in saves three times in his career (2019, 2022, 2023).
In 2023, Matsui posted a 1.57 ERA (10 ER, 57.1 IP) with a career-best 39 saves, 0.89 WHIP and 72 strikeouts in 59 games for the Golden Eagles. He recorded an ERA under 2.00 in each of his last three seasons while compiling 95 saves with a 1.42 cumulative ERA (24 ER, 152.0 IP) over that stretch. He also pitched for the Gold Medal-winning Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Matsui set a National Summer High School Championship record with a 22-strikeout performance in a game in 2012, breaking Yoshinora Toda’s 49-year-old record (21). He was then the most popular player in the 2013 NPB draft with five of the twelve teams choosing him first overall before the lottery assigned his rights to the Golden Eagles. Matsui was also selected to the Japan national baseball team for the 2013 18U Baseball World Cup, 2015 exhibition games against Europe, 2015 WBSC Premier12, 2017 World Baseball Classic, 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series and the 2019 WBSC Premier12.
