Rays Notes: Welcome, Hideki!

Hideki Matsui has arrived. As Marc Topkin and everybody else tweeted, the ex-Japan Pacific League and Yankees star will be called up by the Rays prior to today’s game. Matsui posted just a .170/.231/.213 line at Triple-A Durham after the Rays signed him to a minor league deal, and we will have to see what he can give the Rays. Matsui will see time at DH, left field, and possibly first base.

In a somewhat surprising move, the Rays took Jose Lobaton off the DL after he had missed nearly all of 2012 and sent down Chris Gimenez, who had started exactly half of the Rays first 48 games. Gimenez posted just a .191/.236/.206 line with 4 RBI and just a 15% caught stealing percentage with 3 errors, all of which were bizarrely catcher’s interference. At least after one day it worked out as Lobaton had an RBI single off Chris Sale in Monday’s game. If you thought Matsui was bad in the minors, Lobaton was a complete disaster, posting just a .091/.189/.152 line, but hopefully his solid first game is a sign of things to come more than anything.