The Tampa Bay Rays hoped that designated hitter Hideki Matsui would recover some of the hitting magic he had in several years with the New York Yankees.

Wednesday, though, he had a designation of another kind:

The Tampa Bay Rays have designated outfielder/designated hitter Hideki Matsui for assignment to make room for infielder Ryan Roberts

— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) July 25, 2012

Matsui, now 38 years old, hit just .147/.214/.221 in 103 plate appearances with two home runs for the Rays. That’s an OPS+ of 24. Matsui didn’t hit very well with the A’s in 2011, either, posting a .696 OPS. It seems likely that Matsui’s major-league career is over.

That still leaves the Rays without an effective hitter to DH; they could use Roberts, but his OPS+ of 74 isn’t that much better. The Rays have had a black hole at DH most of 2012; their DH’s have combined to hit .210/.270/.362 this season, so the Rays could still scour the trade market for a better hitter before the deadline.

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