Hideki Matsui Named Yomiuri Giants Manager on Three-Year Deal

Hideki Matsui, the slugger known as "Godzilla" who starred for the New York Yankees and was MVP of the 2009 World Series, has been appointed manager of the Yomiuri Giants, the club where his professional career began. The Giants announced the move on Friday, 23 October 2026, and the 52-year-old was introduced at a news conference at a Tokyo hotel. He will wear No. 90 on a three-year contract, and he will take charge when the team opens fall practice on 30 October.

Hideki Matsui, then with the Los Angeles Angels, is greeted by former Yankees teammates at the team's 2009 World Series ring ceremony at Yankee Stadium (13 April 2010). Photo: Chris Ptacek via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Key points

• The Yomiuri Giants officially appointed Hideki Matsui as manager on 23 October 2026, Kyodo News and Nikkei reported, with an introductory news conference in Tokyo the same day.
• Giants owner Toshikazu Yamaguchi announced a three-year contract and the uniform number 90, according to Nippon TV and Nikkan Sports.
• Matsui fills the vacancy left when Shinnosuke Abe stepped down in May; coach Hideki Hashigami ran the team for the rest of the 2026 season.
• In Japan, Matsui hit .304 with 332 home runs and 889 RBIs in 10 seasons; in MLB he hit .282 with 175 home runs and 760 RBIs, for 507 combined.
• Matsui acknowledged on Friday that he lacks the experience of the other managers in the league.

A homecoming 24 years later

Matsui joined the Giants as a first-round draft pick in 1992 after starring at the national high school tournament at Koshien for Seiryo High School in Ishikawa Prefecture. He spent 10 seasons in Tokyo, from 1993 to 2002, under the mentorship of Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima. He won three home run titles, three RBI titles and a batting title, and helped the club win three Japan Series championships. His final season in Japan, 2002, produced 50 home runs.

He then left as a free agent for the Yankees ahead of the 2003 season, a move that made him one of the first Japanese power hitters to succeed in the majors. Speaking on Friday, he recalled that departure. "I was thinking back to 24 years ago, when I left the Giants on my own will," Matsui told reporters, according to Reuters. "On that day, I couldn't smile at all. But today, I feel as though I've returned to my hometown with a big smile on my face."

"Starting from now, I want to usher in a new golden age for the Giants," he said, as quoted by Kyodo News. The Japan Times quoted him as saying he was "happy to take over this team and be involved at the start of building the Giants of the future."

Why No. 90, and what the job looks like

According to the Japanese baseball site Full-Count, Matsui gave three reasons for choosing No. 90. It was the number Nagashima wore when he first became Giants manager. Nagashima, who died in 2025, would have turned 90 this year. And the two numbers Matsui wore as a player, 55 and 35 (the latter at the end of his MLB career with Tampa Bay), add up to 90.

Nikkei reported that Yamaguchi offered Matsui the job after the Giants had finished all of their games this season, calling 2026 a year of crisis for the club. The team still finished second in the Central League behind the Hanshin Tigers, but it was knocked out in the first stage of the Climax Series by the third-place Yokohama DeNA BayStars, Kyodo reported.

Abe resigned in late May after he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his teenage daughter. Tokyo prosecutors decided in June not to indict him, according to Kyodo News and The Japan Times. Hashigami served as interim manager for the remainder of the season.

Matsui did not hide that he is new to the dugout. Reuters reported that he said he knew he lacked the experience of the other managers in the league, but wanted to "run alongside the players and grow together with them."

The Yankees connection

For Yankees fans, Matsui remains one of the best-loved players of the 2000s. In seven seasons in the Bronx he hit 140 of his 175 MLB home runs, according to Baseball-Reference, and he was named MVP of the 2009 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies after going 8-for-13 with three home runs and eight RBIs. That was his last season with the club before stints with the Angels, Athletics and Rays. He retired in 2012.

He never really left the organization. In March 2015 the Yankees named him special advisor to general manager Brian Cashman, the club announced at the time. "After retiring, I was also fortunate to spend 12 years with the New York Yankees, where I was involved in player development," Matsui said on Friday, according to Reuters. He has also worked as a guest batting instructor at Giants spring training camps, Nippon TV noted.

He also pointed to the gap between the two leagues. "In terms of market size, the scale is completely different," he said. "But it is also true that right now, the best baseball player in the world is Japanese. I hope that players like that will emerge from our Giants as well."

Why it matters

The Giants are Japan's most popular baseball franchise, and handing the team to its most famous modern alumnus is a clear attempt to reset after a difficult year. Matsui brings star power, a deep link to the Nagashima era and more than a decade of experience in an MLB front office, but little managerial experience, as he admitted himself. His first test comes quickly: fall practice starts on 30 October, and Giants fans will judge the three-year deal on whether he can turn a second-place team into a champion again. For American fans, it is a rare case of a Yankees World Series hero taking charge of a major club abroad, and a fresh reason to follow Japanese baseball in 2027.

Sources

• Kyodo News: Ex-Yankees slugger Matsui appointed Giants manager (23 October 2026)
• Nikkei Asia: Ex-Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui to manage Tokyo's Yomiuri Giants (23 October 2026)
• Reuters via KSL.com: Former Yankees slugger Matsui appointed Yomiuri Giants manager (23 October 2026)
• The Japan Times: Former star slugger Hideki Matsui to become next manager of Giants in NPB (23 October 2026)
• AP News: Hideki Matsui hired as manager of the Yomiuri Giants (23 October 2026)
• Nippon TV News (Japanese): Matsui becomes new Giants manager, No. 90, three-year contract (23 October 2026)
• Nikkan Sports (Japanese): Matsui's introductory news conference (23 October 2026)
• Nikkei (Japanese): Giants announce Matsui as manager (23 October 2026)
• Full-Count (Japanese): Why Matsui chose No. 90 (23 October 2026)
• The Japan Times: Ex-Giants manager Abe spared indictment (16 June 2026)
• New York Yankees (MLB.com): Yankees name Hideki Matsui Special Advisor to the General Manager (2015)
• Baseball-Reference: Hideki Matsui MLB statistics
• Baseball-Reference Register: Hideki Matsui NPB statistics