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According to a report from Yahoo Sports Japan, the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball have interest in signing right-handed Japanese pitcher Kenta Maeda.
Maeda, 37, is a Major League Baseball veteran of nine years and ended the 2025 season with the New York Yankees‘ Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders. He was designated for assignment by the Detroit Tigers in early May after posting a 7.88 ERA in seven appearances.
In August, Maeda announced he had an interest in returning to Japan, where he played the first eight years of his career with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
Kenta Maeda Was an Ace in Japan
The best pitcher in a given NPB season receives the Eiji Sawamura Award, and Maeda took home the trophy in 2010 and 2015 with the Carp. In 2015, the year before he signed an eight-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he led the Central League in wins with 15 and had a 2.09 ERA in 29 starts.
Maeda won the NPB Pitching Triple Crown in 2010 and was a five-time All-Star. All of his success in Japan led him to a starting gig with the Dodgers. After four seasons with Los Angeles, an offseason trade sent him to the Minnesota Twins. Since then, his performance on the mound has taken a downward spiral.
“The veteran’s decision to leave MLB behind isn’t exactly a surprise given how difficult the past two seasons have been for him. After he struggled to a 6.09 ERA in 112 1/3 innings of work with the Tigers in 2024, he failed to make the club’s rotation out of spring training and opened the season as a long relief option out of the bullpen,” Nick Deeds of MLB Trade Rumors wrote Sunday.
“He ultimately wound up making just seven appearances, however, and allowed eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits, six walks, a home run, and three hit batsmen while striking out eight across eight innings of work. He was ultimately released in early May, bringing the two-year, $24M contract between the sides to a disappointing end.”
Is Kenta Maeda’s time in MLB over?
Furthermore, Maeda made his intentions clear in August that he would like to pitch in NPB again. If he decides to stay in the United States, he would likely have to accept a minor league deal and hope to make the club out of spring training.
“Weak as Maeda’s results at the big league level have been over the past two years, one shouldn’t forget that he was a quality starter for several years for the Dodgers and Twins after making his big league debut back in 2016,” wrote Deeds. “Through the end of his age-35 campaign in 2023, Maeda had posted a career 3.92 ERA and 3.74 FIP in 866 1/3 regular-season innings in the majors to go along with a strong postseason resume that saw him pitch to a 3.24 ERA and strike out 26.8% of his opponents in 41 2/3 playoff innings.”
Moreover, NPB’s Giants may not be the only team interested in Maeda’s services. As mentioned, he began his career with the Carp and could prefer to return to a familiar clubhouse. Former Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka took a similar path, returning to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles after seven seasons in MLB.
Conor Liguori is a sports journalist covering the MLB for Heavy Sports. Conor has covered professional baseball leagues like the KBO, NPB, CPBL, and the LBPRC in Puerto Rico. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Connecticut State University. More about Conor Liguori
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