After being cut by the Detroit Tigers last week, veteran starting pitcher Kenta Maeda has agreed to a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs.
This season, Maeda, 37, only made seven appearances and pitched eight innings with a 7.88 ERA. He hit three hitters, threw two wild pitches, walked six, and struck out eight.
Prior to the 2024 season, Maeda inked a two-year, $24 million contract with the Tigers, and he started the season in the starting lineup. However, following months of inconsistency, he was sent to the bullpen in July.
With a 3.86 ERA in 12 outings out of the bullpen, he fared better in relief. Over 42 innings, he walked only seven and struck out 41.
Maeda changed his typical winter training regimen after the season, starting sooner and throwing more forcefully than he has in years. His velocity and pitch shapes were in regular-season form when he came in camp, having already finished eight bullpen sessions.
It wasn’t enough to overcome a very strong spring from Casey Mize, who earned a spot in the starting rotation, and Jackson Jobe, the top prospect the Tigers were eager to give a big-league opportunity. He did well this spring, striking out 19 and walking one over 12 2/3 innings in Grapefruit League games.
There were fewer circumstances in which Maeda could be employed safely as his troubles worsened, and he never recovered from the bullpen in 2025.
The prorated amount of the $780,000 MLB minimum for whatever time Maeda is on the Cubs’ active roster will cover the remaining $10 million that the Tigers are responsible for paying him this season.
Maeda is expected to report to Triple-A Iowa, though the Cubs have not yet disclosed an assignment.
Following a fruitful term in Japan, Maeda arrived in the US in 2016. following the 2019 season, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins following four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Despite being the runner-up for Cy Young in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Maeda missed all of 2022 due to an elbow ailment he sustained late in 2021 that required Tommy John surgery.
After the surgery, he showed promising results in his first season. In 2023, Maeda pitched 104 1/3 innings and finished 6-8 with a 4.23 ERA. He only walked 28 hitters (6.5 percent) and struck out 117 (27.3 percent).
The Tigers offered him a two-year contract, the first multiyear agreement that team president Scott Harris, who took over at the end of the 2022 season, had ever offered.
With the Cubs, Maeda will now attempt to maintain his career in the United States. A farewell tour in Japan may be his next destination if this doesn’t work out.
Craig Counsell, the manager of the Cubs, told local beat journalists on Friday that “he has had success.” “He’s had difficulties. It’s a player you need to talk to frequently to figure out where he is and where we can make some changes.
