{"id":265170,"date":"2025-11-06T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265170\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T08:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:30:10","slug":"kenta-maeda-announces-hes-leaving-mlb-to-continue-career-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/265170\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenta Maeda Announces He&#8217;s Leaving MLB to Continue Career in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_jmvuetd79\">Veteran right-hander Kenta Maeda announced his Major League Baseball days are over after 10 years and nine seasons. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_o45b6fou3\">On Wednesday, the 37-year-old pitcher announced he will continue his career in his native Japan starting next season in a long, heartfelt thank you message posted to his Instagram account. He\u2019s most known for his tenure with the Dodgers from 2016 to \u201819 before he was traded to the Twins and finished his MLB career with the Tigers for the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_vdyfaemu0\">\u201cPlaying baseball in the United States from 2016 to 2025 has been a dream come true and a decade full of unforgettable moments for which I\u2019m deeply grateful,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly thankful for all the amazing teammates, staff, and fans I\u2019ve met along the way, and those connections mean the world to me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_ed737roos\">\u201cFrom the very first day, everyone welcomed me and my family with such kindness, helped us when we needed it, and supported me every step of the way. Winning a division title, celebrating with champagne, competing in the postseason, and reaching the World Series\u2014those memories will stay with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_29dudlxlo\">He reached the World Series with the Dodgers in both \u201817 and \u201818. Los Angeles lost the \u201817 World Series to the Astros in seven games, where Maeda pitched 5 2\/3 innings and allowed just one earned run and four hits in four appearances out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_9qg2wfxpk\">Maeda started 172 games with the Dodgers, Twins and Tigers and ends his MLB career with a 68-56 record, 4.20 ERA and 1,055 career strikeouts. He signed a two-year, $24 million deal to join the Tigers in \u201823, but struggled over 17 starts for Detroit in the \u201824 season before he was moved to the bullpen. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_h9h2v42lm\">He made seven appearances as a reliever in Detroit this past season, but was designated for assignment in May after he let up seven earned runs over eight innings pitched. He signed a minor-league contract with the Cubs two weeks later before he was DFA\u2019d in August and was picked up by the Yankees on another minor-league deal. <\/p>\n<p>More MLB on Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran right-hander Kenta Maeda announced his Major League Baseball days are over after 10 years and nine seasons.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-265170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}