{"id":110291,"date":"2025-09-01T06:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/110291\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T06:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:40:12","slug":"kenta-maeda-plans-to-pitch-in-japan-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/110291\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenta Maeda Plans To Pitch In Japan In 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an appearance on TV Tokyo\u2019s \u201cSports Real Live\u201d show (Japanese language link from Yahoo Japan<\/a>), Kenta Maeda<\/a> said that he is leaving North American baseball behind at the conclusion of the 2025 season.\u00a0 Maeda revealed that he initially made his decision after signing his two-year, $24MM deal with the Tigers that that would be his final contract with a Major League team, and he is hoping to continue his career in Japan with a Nippon Professional Baseball club in 2026.<\/p>\n

Maeda (who turns 38 in April) began his pro career with eight seasons with the Hiroshima Carp before being posted for MLB clubs, and signing an incentive-heavy eight-year, $25MM deal with the Dodgers back in January 2016.\u00a0 Maeda\u2019s stint in North America has seen him suit up in nine Major League seasons \u2014 he missed the 2022 campaign recovering from a Tommy John surgery, and he has yet to see any big league action during a 2025 season spent entirely in the minors.<\/p>\n

After struggling badly in the first year of his Tigers contract, a move to the bullpen didn\u2019t change Maeda\u2019s fortunes this year, and Detroit released the right-hander in early May.\u00a0 He then joined the Cubs on a minor league contract before being released in early August, quickly landing with the Yankees on another minors deal.\u00a0 Over 76 1\/3 Triple-A innings this season, Maeda hasn\u2019t shown any of his old form, posting a 6.25 ERA for New York and Chicago\u2019s top affiliates.<\/p>\n

During the TV Tokyo interview, Maeda said his family has been living in Japan during his year in the minors, in order to have some stability while Maeda has now bounced around to multiple teams.\u00a0 His recent on-field results (or lack thereof) had no bearing on his decision, as Maeda stated that he would\u2019ve returned to Japan after 2025 if he\u2019d been a 20-game winner at the big league level.<\/p>\n

Since it doesn\u2019t look like the Yankees will be calling Maeda up in September, his MLB resume could be closed after 226 games (172 of them starts) with the Tigers, Twins, and Dodgers over parts of nine seasons.\u00a0 Maeda has a 4.20 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate, and 7.8% walk rate over 986 2\/3 career innings in the regular season, as well as a 3.24 ERA across 41 2\/3 career postseason frames with Minnesota and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Though his final act in Detroit didn\u2019t go well, Maeda was generally a very effective pitcher in the majors.\u00a0 He had a 3.87 ERA during 589 innings in L.A., with the Dodgers using Maeda both as a starter and as a reliever, though Maeda made it known that he preferred rotation work.\u00a0 A trade to the Twins prior to the 2020 season gave Maeda a full-fledged starting job, and he responded with a runner-up finish in AL Cy Young Award voting, posting a 2.70 ERA in 66 2\/3 innings during the pandemic-shortened season.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t as effective during a 2021 campaign that was cut short by his Tommy John procedure, though Maeda returned in solid form (4.23 ERA in 104 1\/3 IP) for Minnesota\u2019s AL Central-winning team in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an appearance on TV Tokyo\u2019s \u201cSports Real Live\u201d show (Japanese language link from Yahoo Japan), Kenta Maeda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,78918,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-110291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-kenta-maeda","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}