Last week the Los Angeles Dodgers officially signed Kenta Maeda to an eight-year contract. The pact is incentive-laden with a relatively low guaranteed salary for the Japanese native.
Of course, on top of however much Maeda ends up earning over the lifetime of the contract, the Dodgers are also on the hook for the $20 million posting fee owed to the Hiroshima Carp.
Maeda’s team-friendly contract is related to “irregularities” surfacing in a physical he took prior to entering into negotiations with the Dodgers.
Maeda did not provide details or answer questions specifically related to his elbow during the Jan. 7 introductory press conference.
He did however, express confidence in remaining healthy as he did during eight seasons pitching in Japan.
It was previously reported the incentives in Maeda’s contract would allow for him to earn more than $100 million. However, the max value of his deal appears to be just north of $90 million, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports:
Sources: Kenta Maeda's deal w/ Dodgers has $3M/year salary for eight seasons. Annual bonuses up to $8.15M. Max value of the deal is $90.2M.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 13, 2016
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman previously remarked the estimated benchmarks to trigger the full value of the incentives was 30 starts and 200 innings pitched per season.
Friedman also voiced his belief the right-hander will make significant contributions to the club in the years ahead. Maeda, who will turn 28 years old on April 11, was 97-67 with a 2.39 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and averaged 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings during his time with the Carp.
Moreover, he tossed tossed at least 200 innings and made 26 starts in four of the last six seasons.
