Report: Daisuke Matsuzaka to return to Japan

After a volatile eight-year stint in Major League Baseball, it appears right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka is heading back to his native Japan, according to a report from the Japan Times.

The 34-year-old right-hander appears to be nearing a deal with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, the reigning champions of the Pacific League, after spending the 2014 campaign with the New York Mets. 

Matsuzaka worked primarily in relief last season after spending the majority of his major-league career as a starter, but Hawks president Yoshimitsu Goto suggested his club intends to turn him back into a starter.

“Pitchers who can start are a valuable commodity, so we will do our best to get him,” Goto said. “We hope to get this done in the coming days.”

Matsuzaka made his big-league debut in 2007 after the Boston Red Sox secured his negotiating rights via the posting system with a bid of more than $51 million, a record at the time. 

Though he finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2007, Matsuzaka's stateside career was marred by inconsistency. He crafted a 4.45 ERA with a 1.40 WHIP over 132 starts and 26 relief appearances between the Red Sox and Mets, managing an 11.2 percent walk rate while averaging 0.97 home runs per nine innings.

Much of Matsuzaka's intrigue when he first arrived in the major leagues revolved around his purported use of the gyroball, a mysterious pitch designed to "look to a batter like a slider and act like a fastball," according to Kazushi Tezuka, who researched the pitch extensively. 

Unbeknown to most, however, Matsuzaka admitted in 2006 that he doesn't actually throw a gyroball.