I’ll just be over here trying to come up with an explanation of why Kenta Maeda choosing the Detroit Tigers this weekend is *THE MOVE* that opens up the floodgates, starting a chain reaction, the end result of which is Shohei Ohtani having ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER CHOICE but to land on the Chicago Cubs.
That, uh, probably won’t happen.
Anyway, we finally have a moderately significant free agent signing around MLB:
Kenta Maeda, 35, was returning from Tommy John surgery this year, but almost immediately hit the injured list with a triceps issue. After he came back in June, he was pretty outstanding, posting an ERA just north of three over 16 starts and 88.1 innings. The peripherals mostly matched, and, given his strong track record before the elbow injury, he was looking like one of the better veteran back-half starters on the market this year. Honestly, I think that deal for the Tigers is potentially a steal.
That’s an up-and-coming Tigers team, by the way, with an former-Cubs-exec duo running things in President Scott Harris and GM Jeff Greenberg. Getting a stable veteran in the rotation can be quietly huge. They just need Javy Bรกez to bounce back …
The only known suitor for Maeda other than the Tigers was the Twins, where he’d been pitching since 2020. It’s hard, then, to say what the market impact is here, other than the contract looking pretty reasonable.
Although I don’t actually think Maeda signing is going to open any floodgates, I do think we’re in for some post-Thanksgiving maneuvering this week, in advance of the Winter Meetings the week thereafter. Things are going to start picking up no matter what.