Sayonara, Matsui?

Yesterday, Brian Cashman made an all-out assault on Johnny Damon. Clearly they think he's going to be fit and healthy next year and an important piece of the puzzle for a team that will be manufacturing runs instead of blasting them out of the park. Then Brian Cashman insisted he saw Damon playing left field on Opening Day. Left field? Uh, what about Matsui? Two possibilities: one, that knee surgery the Yankees have been downplaying is a lot more serious than they're saying (they'd downplay an amputation if they could, of course); two, Matsui is on the trading block (if that's possible). We saw how very unhappy and uncooperative Matsui was when he came back from his injury to find Melky in the outfield. That's MY spot, Matsui ungraciously insisted. I love him as a player but clearly he will be a very disruptive presence if asked to ride the bench or Damon starts in HIS spot on Opening Day. Either he'll be traded (and I'll miss him a lot) or that knee injury will be keeping him out of the game a lot longer than we've been led to believe.