Off Season 2019- 20

Maeda is not happy about his role, hardly a surprise based on his contract structure.

Kenta Maeda not happy with how Dodgers have handled him
By Craig CalcaterraNov 15, 2019, 12:03 PM EST

Andy McCullough of The Athletic writes that Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda has informed the club that he’s unhappy with how the team has handled him.

How have they handled him? McCullough puts it succinctly for those unaware:

"He prepares to be a starter during spring training. Over the course of two dozen outings, he performs like a credible member of the rotation. As summer turns to fall, the team shifts him into the bullpen, where he pitches like an elite reliever and forms part of the bridge to closer Kenley Jansen."

Thing is, it works for the team. But it’s also not great for Maeda personally. He makes $3 million a year on a long-term deal, and that’s way less than the value he provides. His way of making up for that when he signed the deal was building in performance bonuses into his contract that could snag him millions more each year. Specifically:

$1M each for 15 and 20 games started;
$1.5M each for 25, 30, and 32 games started;
$250,000 each for 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, and 190 innings pitched; and
$750,000 for 200 innings pitched.

In the four seasons Maeda has had that deal — 2016 through 2019 — he has started 32, 25, 20 and 26 games, respectively. His innings over that span: 175.2, 134.1, 125.1, and 153.2. The operation of that $3 million base plus incentives means that his salary has gone from $7.25 million in 2016, down to $4.25 million in 2017, down to $3 million in 2018, and then bouncing back up to $5.4 million in 2019.

Maeda has been a somewhat more effective pitcher as a reliever than as a starter, but that would probably track for most starters. Either way, it’s a workload that Maeda, who won the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young Award twice before coming to the United States, would like to see expanded.

Given that Hyun-Jin Ryu is a free agent and may not be back, he might have a chance to see that happen this year. But then again, he has been a part of the rotation every offseason and every early season for the past four years. Starting in September and October has been another story.

'In the four seasons Maeda has had that deal — 2016 through 2019 — he has started 32, 25, 20 and 26 games, respectively. His innings over that span: 175.2, 134.1, 125.1, and 153.2. The operation of that $3 million base plus incentives means that his salary has gone from $7.25 million in 2016, down to $4.25 million in 2017, down to $3 million in 2018, and then bouncing back up to $5.4 million in 2019.'

Not sure where McCullough got those figures. This past year Maeda made $3,125,000 + $150,000 for making the opening day roster + $3,500,000 for 26 starts + $1,750,000 for innings pitched. That = $8,525,000.

But this pretty much said it all.

"He prepares to be a starter during spring training. Over the course of two dozen outings, he performs like a credible member of the rotation. As summer turns to fall, the team shifts him into the bullpen, where he pitches like an elite reliever and forms part of the bridge to closer Kenley Jansen."

Trade him.

Yeah, I like Kenta san a lot but he is good as a starter and great as a reliever. The thing is that if he is unhappy going to the pen then the team should trade him and avoid him saying over that he is unhappy. We'll definitely get some good value for him.

I think both Hill & Ryu might be back on limited years (maybe only one or two - especially for Hill) and for a reasonable price, so I’d sign both.

If there’s one thing we know, especially with our IL history, we can NEVER have too much pitching.

Hill, when healthy (which is about as often as Pollock) is a very good fourth or fifth starter for our rotation and I don’t think he’s going to want multi-years and tens of millions, especially with his history

Ryu loves LA and may be willing to forgo a four year deal; maybe sign him to two, with a club option or payout for years three and / or four.

I hope TD is right about Jansen. Kelly is going to be Kelly - a 4.00 plus ERA overpaid pitcher. He’s never shown any signs in his history of much more.

And Pollock is likely going to be on the IL at some point in 2020; again, history doesn’t lie.

GO DODGERS!!!

I don’t disagree that there are significantly better options available - Cole, Wheeler, Strasburg, Odorizzi to name a few.

But those top tier guys are all going to be looking for multi (think five plus) year deals at astronomical and possibly record setting (see Cole) amounts per annum.

If there’s one thing this current management and ownership group has shown and stayed consistent with, it is that they will not be making offers of that caliber, no matter who or how good that player was.

So, the chances of them going after and landing an arm of that caliber is limited.

Some of the other guys available aren’t much, if any of an improvement over either Hill or Ryu. Hill went seven plus in Game Four of 2018 and was pulled too early by nervous nelly Roberts.

He shouldn’t have been on the 2019 postseason roster after having only been off the IL a couple of weeks.

Ryu has held his own for most of his postseason starts and threw the only winning game I saw in Milwaukee. He came in second for the Cy Young this year, for crying out loud.

Yes, he seemed to tire toward the end of the season and did his usual stint on the IL. But he was also 13 - 5 and I’d put him on the postseason mound 99 times out of 100 over Kershaw.

GO DODGERS!!!

He wants to start. Can't blame him for that. The team says he should get better at it if that's what he wants. So, yeah, just avoid the issue and Friedman should trade him.

jr points out that Ryu has been better than Kershaw in post- season and he's totally right and wants Hill back. The thing for me is this. We have a bunch of guys that are similar in the sense that  they throw 89- 91 mph, Kershaw, Ryu, Hill, Maeda, Stripling, to me that is a problem. Yes, they get the job done at times but we need stud throwers in post- season like Buehler. Glad Urias and Gonsolin or May might take the other couple of spots.

My bad, I thought you were saying to bring back Hill. We'll disagree on bringing back Ryu though.

My reason is that whatever money is paid to Hill is money lost. We can bank on him hitting the IL every single time. I'd rather save the money and invest it on someone else or give a young guy a chance. Same for Ryu since he is injury prone and I believe he will get paid for what he has done in today's market and we'll regret it in 3 years just like Kershaw. 

I agree that Urias should be given an opportunity once and for all to either start or relieve. The issue is that he was coming back from injury and there weren't enough spots to put him in the rotation when he came back so we'll now.

I really like power arms and think they can do well for us. I consider Cole and Verlander power arms but not Greinke.

I might be extremely optimistic but I think that the talent these young guys have thwarts experience since that experience is often absent due to IL stints. I think the team has enough to compete for the division and can wait to around the deadline to acquire a guy like Syndergaard. Wouldn't that be something.