Mets club history with Japanese players

By Christina Cola
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Kazuo Matsui

SAN FRANCISCO – APRIL 25: Kazuo Matsui
SAN FRANCISCO – APRIL 25: Kazuo Matsui /

Kaz! One of my favorite middle infielders the Mets picked up in 2004. He had a fantastic rookie season with the Mets. .272/.331/.396. Kaz wasn’t a long ball guy, but he would finish his 2004 season with 125 hits, 32 of those being doubles. Matsui even finished sixth in the Rookie of the Year voting that season, which just goes to show the overall impact he had on the Mets that year.

Defensively he was a decent shortstop for the Mets before Jose Reyes would end up taking the reins. He posted a .959 fielding percentage but made 23 errors on the year which was less than fantastic. Regardless, he was the only Matsui that played in New York that Mets fans would care about.

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