After weeks of a grueling and frustrating offseason with little to show for roster improvement, the Los Angeles Dodgers appeared to add starting pitchers to their rotation on back-to-back days.
First was the club announcing the signing of Scott Kazmir to a three-year, $48 million contract on Dec. 30. The following day, it was reported Los Angeles and Japanese righty Kenta Maeda agreed to terms on a contract.
Maeda’s deal is said to be a complicated one and full of performance bonuses. His guarantee is believed to be $25 million over eight years.
Any agreed upon salary comes on top of a signing team paying the Hiroshima Carp the $20 million posting fee for the rights to negotiate with the 27 year old.
While Kazmir is officially part of the Dodgers organization, the club has yet to formally announce an agreement with Maeda.
According to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, the delay in finalizing a deal with Maeda is due to elbow concerns:
Source says #Dodgers-Kenta Maeda deal is taking a while because of concerns over his elbow. Expected to be official in next day or 2.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) January 6, 2016
The Dodgers went through a similar issue with Hisashi Iwakuma, who had a three-year, $45 million deal in place. However, a physical raised some red flags and negated the agreement, and Iwakuma quickly re-signed with the Seattle Mariners.
Maeda spent the past eight seasons pitching for Hiroshima. He went 15-8 last season with a 2.09 ERA and won a second career Sawamura Award, which is the Japanese equivalent to Major League Baseball’s Cy Young.
He’s thrown at least 200 innings and made a minimum of 26 starts in four of the last six years, including hitting those benchmarks in three straight seasons from 2010-12. Maeda will turn 28 years old in April.
