Hideki Matsui set to manage Yomiuri Giants

Former Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui is back in baseball, and going back where it all began.

It was announced Friday that the man whose power earned him the nickname “Godzilla” will now manage the Yomiuri Giants. The same Yomiuri Giants with whom Matsui spent the first decade of his career and hit .304 with 332 home runs. He then departed for the United States and played ten more seasons with the Yankees, Angels, A’s, and Rays.

Matsui first came to the Yankees in 2003 on a three-year, $21 million contract at age 29. He hit .287 with 16 home runs and 106 RBI en route to finishing second in AL Rookie of the Year voting. Matsui then became a regular 25-30 home run threat in New York when healthy. His knees eventually declined to the point where he was relegated to DH duty.

That still didn’t stop Matsui from socking 28 home runs in 2009, his age-35 season and final with the Yankees. And what better way to cap a Bronx tenure than batting .615 with three home runs in the World Series against Philadelphia. An obvious World Series MVP.

Matsui also won three Japan Series with Yomiuri, taking home MVP honors in 2000 and 2002. However, he joins the team when they’re in a spot not too unlike the Yankees.

The Yomiuri Giants have won 22 Japan Series since their founding in 1934, but haven’t won since 2012. The team lost the Japan Series in 2013, 2019, and 2020. Otherwise, it’s been a series of early playoff exits in what Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) calls The Climax Series.

And 2026 had quite a bit of turnover in Tokyo. Manager and former Giants star Shinnosuke Abe resigned in May following an alleged assault at home. He was succeeded by “offensive chief coach” Hideki Hagashima, who finished the season.

Of course, Hideki Matsui is far from the first Giants legend to manage Yomiuri. Abe hit 406 home runs as the team’s star catcher before getting the skipper’s job in 2024. His predecessor Tatsunori Hara, who managed the Giants three different times, was an infield slugger. So was Hara’s most recent predecessor Yoshinobu Takahashi.

Even the great Sadaharu Oh, who hit 868 home runs as a Giant, managed the team. As did his teammate Shigeo Nagashima, who slugged 444 dingers of his own.

To say that Hideki Matsui has big shoes to fill in the Yomiuri Giants dugout is an understatement. This is a team with a long history of popular power hitters, of which Matsui is one. The Giants, just like their MLB counterpart Yankees, long to be champions again.

Ownership seems to think that hiring someone who won rings in both Tokyo and New York is the solution.