Just over a month ago, Kenta Maeda was considered a heavy favorite to be the Detroit Tigers’ No. 5 starter. A lot has changed in four weeks’ time.
The 37-year-old, who signed a two-year, $24 million deal with the Tigers in November of 2023 to bring some veteran stability to the team’s starting rotation, has done everything but that. A rocky start to last season saw him demoted to the bullpen in July, but a strong showing at spring training this year led to optimism that he could be eyeing a comeback campaign in 2025. Three weeks into the season, however, that hasn’t been the case.
Despite his solid spring, Maeda opened 2025 in the bullpen, where he posted a 3.86 ERA across 42 innings with a 1.07 WHIP as a reliever last year. Through five appearances and six innings this year, however, he’s up to a 10.50 ERA and proving to be a liability even in low-leverage situations. His last outing came Friday against the Kansas City Royals when the Tigers entered the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead, and he only managed to get one out before a two-run meltdown got him pulled in favor of Tommy Kahnle.
AJ Hinch was unimpressed by Kenta Maeda’s limp excuse for bad pitching with Tigers
Maeda attributed his recent struggles to the fact that he is still adjusting to the unpredictability he faces in his role as a reliever.
“It’s not very easy to go out there and pitch without a schedule, and just to maintain my body condition to be ready physically, mentally is not an easy thing,” Maeda said (via Will Burchfield of 97.1 The Ticket). “I’m in the midst of trying to figure out what’s best for me in order to stay ready for whenever that time may be, because there would be times that I wouldn’t pitch for multiple days and then you would see back-to-back outings, so things like that I gotta get used to.”
Were the 42 innings he pitched in relief last season not enough for him to “figure out what’s best” in a bullpen role? Manager AJ Hinch, for his part, didn’t seem to be buying Maeda’s excuse.
“I think it all comes down to the strike zone,” Hinch said (via Burchfield). “Where he gets in trouble is when he doesn’t get first-pitch strikes, and if he doesn’t get first-pitch strikes he’s chasing bad counts, which is piling up on him. The strike zone is usually the answer for everything. It’s hard when performance isn’t great, when execution isn’t great, and you want to make up for that every time you get on the mound.”
Regardless of the reason for Maeda’s continued struggles, the Tigers are going to need him to figure it out, and fast. As much they can’t afford to keep giving their struggling veteran chances, they also can’t afford to overtax their injury-depleted bullpen.
