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Turnaround Has Matsuzaka in Hunt for No. 5 Spot in the Mets’ Rotation
By TIM ROHANFEB. 23, 2014
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Mets pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is feeling confident after a solid and healthy off-season.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Late last season, after another poor start threatened to cut short his career, Daisuke Matsuzaka went golfing with a group that included his interpreter, Jeff Cutler, and the Mets’ pitching coach, Dan Warthen.
It was a chance to get away, to recharge. They talked about pitching in general, and at one point, Warthen suggested that they make a few modifications to Matsuzaka’s mechanics.
He agreed, and after a few bullpen sessions, the results were clear: He was starting to look more like his old self, the pitcher who came to Boston from Japan in 2007, the one the Red Sox had paid more than $100 million for.
Warthen had suggested that Matsuzaka lock his right foot snug against the rubber and keep his right leg straight as he raised his left leg during his windup.
That way, Matsuzaka could increase torque and really push off the rubber and pitch downhill. His foot had been sliding and his leg had been crooked. Now he felt more balanced. He had better control. He seemed to be throwing harder, too.
And his breaking balls had a sharper bite. Warthen had Matsuzaka throw his slider more on the seams, to take some spin off it and make it tighter, and had him hold his curveball deeper in his hand, so that it would not float high in the zone.
Warthen also had Matsuzaka, never speedy between his pitches, cut down on wasted time while he was on the mound. Matsuzaka was taking about 24 seconds between pitches — which seemed like an eternity, given how poorly he had been pitching — and he cut it to 12 seconds.
The work paid off. In his final four starts of the season, Matsuzaka went 3-0 and posted a 1.37 earned run average after going 0-3 with a 10.95 E.R.A. in his first three starts with the Mets.
The turnaround, and his close relationship with Warthen, led to a minor league, nonguaranteed contract that has Matsuzaka, 33, vying for the No. 5 spot in the rotation, with the 24-year-old Jenrry Mejia as his primary competition.
Matsuzaka is confident in his chances after a solid — and healthy — off-season.
He started training in mid-October, earlier than usual, after spending the previous two winters dealing with the effects of the Tommy John surgery he had in June 2011. He said everyday tasks, like putting on a T-shirt or washing his hair, would bother his elbow. The extra time he spent rehabilitating his arm those two winters had cut into his regular pitching preparation.
Now, Matsuzaka could train and work on perfecting his mechanics, unhindered. His mind was not on his elbow anymore — he just had to get to camp. He took a commercial flight from Tokyo to Boston, then made the roughly 23-hour drive to Port St. Lucie with Cutler, his interpreter. They made only one stop.
“I think, next time, I’ll fly down here,” Matsuzaka said.
It was quite different from the travel plans of Masahiro Tanaka, the latest Japanese star pitcher to come to the majors. After signing a seven-year, $155 million contract with the Yankees, Tanaka rented a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner to get to his introductory news conference in New York this month. As Tanaka threw his first bullpen sessions this spring in Tampa, Fla., dozens of members of the Japanese news media watched his every move.
Here, a handful of Japanese reporters watched Matsuzaka, a far cry from his days in Boston, when he would do two news conferences, one in English and another in Japanese. Cutler said he figured the dual news conferences would continue during the regular season in New York if Matsuzaka made the team.
Sandy Alderson, the Mets’ general manager, foreshadowed the contrast when he joked at a baseball writers’ dinner in January that the Mets were just like the Yankees: “We each signed Japanese pitchers this week. They’re paying $155 million, and we’re paying our guy month to month.”
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Manager Terry Collins has indicated that he would prefer to use a veteran, like Matsuzaka, as his fifth starter, at least to start the season. Mejia has missed time with elbow problems and must prove to the Mets that he can stay healthy.
But the Mets also have Noah Syndergaard, a 21-year-old pitching prospect obtained in the R. A. Dickey trade, who could be called up by midsummer.
Whoever wins the job out of training camp would essentially hold it until then.
After throwing a bullpen session next to Syndergaard last week, Matsuzaka jokingly asked not to be placed next to him anymore. At 6 feet 6 inches, Syndergaard made the 6-foot Matsuzaka look small, and his 97-mile-per-hour fastball made Matsuzaka’s pitches look slow.
“I wanted to avoid that,” Matsuzaka said, smiling.
For now, Collins and Warthen have raved about Matsuzaka. He looks consistent and sharp, and he looks to be in great shape.
“He looks like he did at the end of last year,” catcher Anthony Recker said.
Warthen went a bit further.
“His core is much stronger,” Warthen said. “His legs are in great shape. His arms are quick. To me, right now, his velocity is higher than it was at any time last year.” |
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