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Injury-Prone Matsui Put on Waivers as Astros Look to Improve Their Offense
May 20, 2010

Struggling to stay healthy, Houston Astros second baseman Kazuo Matsui, top, has failed to live up to his team’s expectations. (AFP Photo) Struggling to stay healthy, Houston Astros second baseman Kazuo Matsui, top, has failed to live up to his team’s expectations. (AFP Photo)
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Houston. The Houston Astros waived struggling second baseman Kazuo Matsui after Wednesday night’s 7-3 win over the Colorado Rockies.

Matsui was batting .141 this season and was hitless in his last 20 at-bats. The 34-year-old was in the last season of a three-year, $16.5 million contract that he signed in December 2007.

Matsui did not play in Wednesday’s game but said afterward he was thankful to the Astros for his tenure here.

“I could be on a great team with great fans, and I could play in an environment with good teammates and good fans in a good city,” he said through a translator. “I had a really good time and it was my pleasure.”

Matsui said he had not considered the possibility of continuing his career in Japan.

“I’m just going to keep myself doing exercise and keep my body fresh,” he said. “I cannot think about it right now.”

Houston will replace him with infielder Oswaldo Navarro, whose contract the Astros purchased from Triple-A Round Rock. General manager Ed Wade said the transaction would officially go into effect on Thursday.

If Matsui is not claimed by another club by Monday, he will become an unrestricted free agent.

Matsui hit .293 in his first season with Houston but was plagued by injuries in his time here, going on the disabled list four times.

“This year, and for parts of last year, his performance hasn’t been quite what we expected or what we saw when he hit .293 in 2008 for us,” Wade said.

“Last year, a succession of back issues came up from time to time, and then this year was certainly a significant struggle for him, he added.”

Wade said before the game he was considering lineup changes to kick-start the Astros’ slumping offense. Houston matched a season-high 13 hits on Wednesday, but the Astros came in with the worst batting average (.227), run total (115) and home run total (20) in the majors.

“Perhaps if we were firing on all cylinders at other positions, this would be something that we would have sort of pushed to the back burner,” Wade said. “But we felt that it was important to do it at this time.”



Associated Press