Whither Godzilla?

Hideki Matsui hit two homeruns in the Yankees’ 11-1 drubbing of the Mariners yesterday.  He now has 19 HRs on the season and has an OPS of .881.

Reports have it that the Yankees do not intend to resign Godzilla when his contract expires at the end of this season.  At age 35, he has a hard time staying healthy, and he has almost no defensive value left.  In fact, he has not played one game in the field this year.

However, Hideki still has value to an American League team as a DH.  Although the new Yankee Stadium is reputed to be a great hitters’ park, Matsui is actually hitting much better this year on the road (.781 home OPS; 1.018 road OPS).  In short, he can still hit when he’s healthy.

A team that I could see signing Matsui this off-season to a one or two year deal (at a substantial pay reduction from what he made as a Yankee) is the Seattle Mariners.

First, it is almost certain that this is Junior Griffey’s last major league season.  He’s currently hitting .226 with a .736 OPS.  The Mariners have already milked all the feel-good, homecoming ticket sales they are going to get out of Griffey, so there’s no reason to bring him back for another underperforming season.

This means that the Mariners will have their DH slot open.  Also, I would think that a team that featured both Ichiro and Godzilla in their regular line-up would have enormous potential for extremely lucrative TV contracts in Japan.

These are Japan’s two biggest baseball stars, and I would bet that if they both played for the M’s, they would draw better TV viewership in Japan than any team except the Yomiuri Giants and perhaps the Hanshin Tigers.  It would certainly be worth a one- or two-year contract to see what marketing possibilities arise.

Another team that may make a hard push for Godzilla is the Yomiuri Giants.  The Giants are the only team in Japan that could afford to pay Matsui an MLB-level salary, and bringing him back while he can still hit would create a lot of excitement for the Giants in 2010.

However, the Giants are currently in first place in the Central League.  They really don’t need Matsui, and with no DH in the Central League, there isn’t necessarily a place for Matsui to play on the Giants.

In sum, Matsui playing in Seattle next year makes the most sense to me.  If he is healthy enough to play 120-130 at the DH slot next year for the Mariners, he would be a big improvement over what they are getting this year out of Griffey.  And, of course, I love the marketing possibilities in Japan.