Dodgers Rumors: L.A. Makes Most Sense for Maeda, per Fox Sports
So, based on how the offseason has gone, this is the second step in the process of free agents linked to the Dodgers. First, we heard Tuesday that the Dodgers were interested in Kenta Maeda.
Now, just like basically everyone else on the market, we’re finding out the Dodgers make the most sense because (and we’ve heard this before) they have the most money to spend.
Rinse. Dry. Repeat.
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Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi updates the goings-on around Maeda.
Provided the Dodgers continue operating as they have during the free-spending tenure of owner Mark Walter, they have a good chance to sign Maeda, the star Japanese pitcher whom the Hiroshima Toyo Carp made available through the posting system earlier this month.
Not sure if Morosi has been watching this offseason, but the Dodgers have repeatedly and clearly stated their goal this offseason of getting their payroll under control. They weren’t willing to offer Zack the insane contract he wound up getting in Arizona, let alone spending the hundreds of millions more that it would’ve taken to build the super rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Greinke and David Price.
Anyway, Morosi continues with a comp of Maeda that doesn’t exactly inspire an overwhelming desire to bring him in, too.
Maeda, 27, is viewed by some baseball scouts as being comparable to Mike Leake, who is five months older and just signed a five-year, $80 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. Maeda is believed to prefer a team based on the West Coast, partially because of the access to flights home to Japan.
If we’re looking at that last bit as a major priority for Maeda, then the Dodgers really start to look like a match.
On the west coast, the Seattle Mariners are reportedly done making moves this winter.
Can’t imagine the Giants will spend much more on pitching when they so badly need an outfielder.
The Padres are cheap and still licking their wounds after last winter’s activity winding up in disappointment.
The Angels have already said they aren’t interested in spending big this offseason. The A’s? Don’t make me laugh.
All that leaves… The Dodgers.
NEXT: Kasten Talks About Free Agent Net
Mazda is not the answer. Eric Byrnes has it right. Get Sonny Grey.
S onny Gray would cost a freakin’ fortune. Get Maeda and, if the price is right, add James Shields..
Maeda is enough. Ryu looks to be ready and the kids are almost there. Do not commit to a long term aging used to be and end up like the Phillies, Tigers, and Padres. Math nerds are geniuses and for once management that isn’t mortgaging the future just to save their butts for a couple seasons and who cares what happens 5 years from now. Dodgers will be perennial juggernauts with cap flexibility to develop homegrown players and if, and only when needed, get real stars in their 20s not their 30s.
Right now they are mailing in 2016.
Wow Anthony for once I agree with you. Maeda makes the most sense barring a trade for prospects for a #2 type starter. The Miller trade seems to have poisoned the market as the Dbacks paid a ridiculous price for Miller. Maeda will only cost money and he is young and has a sound arm. Maybe reason the Dodgers would pass LOL…
The Dodgers have an ace in his prime and a recovering shoulder injury pitcher Ryu, Anderson who last year was .500 and limped to the end of the season and Wood who is young and very erratic perhaps a .500 pitcher. We have McCarthy coming back maybe in June and he is an unknown. McCarthy only impresses the Stat Nerds as he is just not a very good pitcher at the end of the day. But we are stuck with him for 3 more years. So we do not match up well with the elite teams in baseball. Maeda would help. If the Dodgers could flush the Outfield of CC and Etheir and sign Gordon or Cepedes for Left Field that would truly help. But I think those guys want outrageous long term contracts.
SO we wait for 2017 for more prospects coming out of the Farm and 2018 when we have more guys developing and they will probably have no one under contract except McCarthy and Maeda if they sign him.