Editorial: Hideki Matsui No Trades Twins

OAKLAND — Hideki Matsui, or as he may be better known as Godzilla, signed a one year, $4.25 million deal with the Oakland Athletics today making the A’s his third team in three years. The interesting part of this deal, at least for Twins fans, is the Matsui was given a limited No-Trade clause and among the six teams Matsui listed, the Twins were among them. This may not be a big deal if the other five teams weren’t the Mariners, Indians, Royals, Blue Jays and Orioles. Some Twins fans my brush this off as Matsui not wanting to play in the pitchers ballpark that is Target Field, but it’s almost like a slap in the face for doing absolutely nothing. Matsui’s No-Trade list is a classic example of “One of these things is not like the other.” The Orioles, Mariners, Royals, Blue Jays and Indians are not going to be playoff contenders this upcoming year and it’s understandable why they’d be on Matsui’s list, but the Twins? The Twins are contenders every single year and with the addition of Matsui (not that we need him this is strictly hypothetical) may be enough to boost the Twins out of the first round of the playoffs for once.

What did the Twins do to disrespect Matsui so much that he thinks as lowly of Minnesota as he does those other non-contenders?

It’s not even like the Twins would want Matsui, it’s just once you hear something like this you wonder: why? What did we do? Twins fans felt this same exact feeling around last years trade deadline when the two top pitchers, Roy Oswalt and Ted Lily, both stated that the Twins were on their no trade lists. But why? Is it the water? There’s only the possibility of snow for the first couple of months of the season. We have sandy beaches here too, whats wrong with our beaches? Minneapolis has a pretty active nightlife, is it our cuisine? It’s the same you can get anywhere else. Perhaps, I’ll say it and play Devil’s Advocate, it’s the management of the Twins. These big time, top dollar ballplayers have egos the size of Matthew LeCroy’s stomach and are basically divas. When they aren’t courted and pursued, they will stand you up faster than the computer geek who asks out the cheerleader. It’s no big secret the Twins front office likes to stay in house in terms of getting players, and thats not a bad thing; it’s something the Twins and their fans take great pride in and when it comes to farm systems, the Twins are the best in baseball. You don’t home grow Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Danny Valencia, Denard Span, and Micheal Cuddyer without knowing damn well what you’re doing and doing it well. The divas chasing the top dollar don’t like this, especially the divas who are on their last contracts like Matsui is. Just like it’s no secret about the Twins front office, it’s no secret Matsui is on his way out. He’s basically a ‘rent-a-player’ at this point selling his talents to the highest bidder. I mean he signed with the Oakland A’s what more proof do you need than that. So whatever we did to so horribly wrong you, to scar you so badly that you’d place us on your No-Trade list, we are truly sorry Hideki. We wish you the best of luck in…..Oakland.