Kenta Maeda joins the Los Angeles Dodgers
Kenta Maeda leaves Japan for the U.S. to play with Dodgers in 2016
Japanese superstar pitcher Kenta Maeda will come to the United States for the 2016 Major League Baseball season and his new home will be in California with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Financial details haven’t been confirmed, but according to Jon Heyman it is a done deal.
Hearing from a baseball source, kenta maeda and dodgers are in agreement. No word on $. @DfineNrmLC all over this one
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 31, 2015
The Hiroshima Carp of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan still had Maeda under contract at the time of the deal. Usually when Japanese imports come to the United States, Major League Baseball teams have to post a fee to acquire the Japanese talent. The Dodgers, as they have proven in recent history, are unconcerned about opening the wallet.
At the age of 27, Maeda comes to the state of California as a pretty successful right handed pitcher with a record of 97-67 and 2.39 ERA over eight seasons. Previous Japanese talents who have come to Major League Baseball include pitchers Hideki Irabu, Masahiro Tanaka and outfielder Hideki Matsui.
There are a few more months left before the start of the 2016 campaign, meaning a lot can still happen. The Dodgers have recently added Scott Kazmir and now Maeda to a rotation that also includes Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-jin Ryu and Brett Anderson.
The Dodgers finished last season with a record of 92-70 and were the National League West division leaders. There are still off-the-field issues with outfielder Yasiel Puig and the baseball club has also cut ties from their manager Don Mattingly. This offseason, Mattingly moved to the state of Florida and will be the Miami Marlins‘ new manager while Dave Roberts has stepped in as the Dodgers new manager.