Orioles Pitching Target Agrees To Deal with Tigers
A pitcher the Baltimore Orioles were linked to in free agency earlier this week appears to be off the free agent board.
Former Minnesota Twins starter Kenta Maeda has agreed to a two-year deal with the Detroit Tigers, per the New York Post.
Maeda’s deal will become official on Monday after a physical. The deal keeps him in the AL Central.
Maeda was seen by some as a potential back-of-the-rotation starter that could help the Orioles, who won 101 games and the AL East title in 2023.
He is about hit his age 36 season, but at one time he was third in NL Rookie of the Year balloting during the 2016 season (16-11 with the Los Angeles Dodgers) and second in Cy Young voting in 2020 (6-1 with the Twins).
The right-hander is coming off a 2023 in which he went 6-8 with a 4.23 ERA after not playing in 2022 due to Tommy John surgery.
So, it’s possible that Maeda could see an upward trend in 2024 based on being two years removed from the surgery and recovery.
Before the surgery he was an innings eater. From 2016-19 he threw at least 125 innings in a season, with 2019 seeing him bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen.
So, Baltimore will continue looking for rotation depth that can support their young, talented rotation that includes Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and Tyler Wells.
Two other free-agent pitchers the Orioles have been connected to recently is one of Maeda’s former teammates, Sonny Gray, and former Chicago Cubs starter Marcus Stroman. They are also seen as a potential landing spot in a trade for Chicago White Sox starter Dylan Cease.
