“I am very honored to be on the Dodgers”, Maeda said in English at his introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium. Maeda went 15-8 with a 2.09 ERA and won the Sawamura Award, the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young.
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The signing marks Maeda as the eighth Japanese player in Dodger history, joining Hideo Nomo (1995-98, 2002-04), Kazuhisa Ishii (2002-04), Masao Kida (2003-04), Norihiro Nakamura (2005), former player (2002-04) and current manager Dave Roberts, Takashi Saito (2006-07) and Hiroki Kuroda (2008-11). Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was able to hold on to shortstop Corey Seager and pitchers Julio Urias and Jose De Leon. “We have had the chance to scout him extensively in Japan and on the global stage and believe he has all the tools to be a successful Major League starting pitcher”.
If not, the Dodgers are on the hook for only $3.125 million per year. The club is widely credited for starting the influx of talent from Japan to the Major Leagues with the historic signing of Nomo in 1995.
Maeda is the next piece of a rich history of Japanese pitchers and the Dodgers.
“I am not anxious about the upcoming season at all”, Maeda said.
That is the sentiment from MLB.com columnist Richard Justice, based on the recent moves Los Angeles made to counter the effects of losing Zack Greinke and failed acquisition attempts of starter Hisashi Iwakuma and closer Aroldis Chapman. “Zero. Hopefully at the end of the season we will have a champagne fight”. With Clayton Kershaw at the top and Kazmir, Brett Anderson, and Hyun-Jin Ryu in the middle, the Dodgers will roll out a left-handed starter four out of every five days. He can earn another $300,000 in performance bonuses for games pitched in the majors: $50,000 each for 40 and 50, and $100,000 apiece for 60 and 70. The deal includes a $1 million assignment bonus each time he is traded. He deflected two follow up questions asking about the specific injury, but said that he felt confident in pitching this season and in the future. Beachy hasn’t been healthy for a full season since his last Tommy John surgery, in April 2014.
“Yeah, it felt a little bit like “here we go again, ‘ or ‘déjà vu” when we found out about Maeda”, Friedman said. Injuries happen, things happen over the course of a season.
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Many see Maeda as a mid-rotation guy but we can’t definitively know until he starts seeing big-league action. His response: “Who’s Elvis?”
