New York Mets refute report about deal with Dice-K
By Hayden Kane
Earlier today a Japanese report from Sports Hochi said that the New York Mets were on the verge of signing Daisuke Matsuzaka to a minor league deal.
Now Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com is reporting that he spoke with team officials and they are refuting the report, saying that no deal is in place to bring “Dice-K” back to the Mets:
"Mets officials refuted a Japanese report from Sports Hochi that Daisuke Matsuzaka was on the verge of agreeing to a minor-league deal with the club, with one member of the organization saying it was ‘not true at all.’"
As Rubin notes, Dice-K put up a solid 1.37 ERA in his final four starts of 2013. He probably wouldn’t make for a bad band-aid in the back of the rotation, but for now, there is nothing cooking between him and the Mets.
Let’s back up for a moment. Dice-K was 26 when he came to the Major Leagues. He was thought to be a sure thing, a can’t-miss pitcher whose stuff would translate at the big league level. In 2008 it did in a big way, as he went 18-3 for the Red Sox.
Since that time he has been nothing short of a disaster, struggling with ineffectiveness and a number of injuries. Right now, seven years since he signed a deal with the Red Sox, he is a free agent who might not be able to land a minor league deal.
Pitching is fickle, and it’s not even because they are both from Japan that I point out the following: we ought to consider the complicated arc of Dice-K’s career and, if nothing else, maybe temper the ridiculously high expectations that will be placed on Masahiro Tanaka. Because when it comes to starting pitching, from anywhere around the world, a sure thing truly is rare to find.