Sources: Maeda, Tigers reach 2-year, $24M deal
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
Right-hander Kenta Maeda and the Tigers agreed Sunday on a two-year, $24 million contract, lengthening Detroit’s rotation as it hopes to improve on a 78-84 finish in the winnable American League Central, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN.
Maeda, who will be 36 two weeks into the season, joins a Tigers team that went 39-34 in the second half and had a positive run differential, matching their win total in 89 first-half games. Detroit had targeted starting depth in the mid-tier pitching market, and Maeda, coming off Tommy John surgery, posted a 4.23 ERA in 104.1 innings with 117 strikeouts and 28 walks for the Minnesota Twins.
He jumps to the Tigers for his eighth big league season and joins a rotation with left-hander Tarik Skubal — who, after his July 4 return from flexor-tendon surgery, posted the most FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement of any pitcher in baseball — right-hander Reese Olson and right-hander Matt Manning, who’s coming off a broken foot.
Detroit’s lineup took a step forward in 2023, with first baseman Spencer Torkelson hitting 31 home runs, outfielder Kerry Carpenter looking like a middle-of-the-order bat and centerfielder Riley Greene — who in September had Tommy John surgery on his non-throwing elbow after injuring himself diving for a catch — flashing All-Star potential. Top hitting prospect Colt Keith should arrive at some point in 2024, adding another potential impact bat to the lineup.
Detroit is hoping Maeda can replicate his performance after he came off the injured list in late June with a triceps strain. In his final 16 starts, Maeda put up a 3.39 ERA and struck out 98 against 23 walks in 85 innings. If he did have a weakness, it was the home run ball, with 17 allowed on the season.
Cavernous Comerica Park could help with that, and in Maeda’s most effective seasons — first with the Los Angeles Dodgers after joining them from the Hiroshima Carp, then when he finished second in the 2020 AL Cy Young voting after getting traded to Minnesota — came when he limited homers.
Staying in the AL Central shouldn’t hurt. The division-winning Twins expect to cut payroll. Cleveland Guardians does return one of baseball’s most dangerous rotations, but its offense remains lackluster. The Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals both lost 100-plus games this year and aren’t yet a threat to take the division.
Executives across the game expected the Tigers to spend this winter, and they started with Maeda, who joins Kyle Gibson (one year, $12 million) , Lance Lynn (one year, $11 million) and Reynaldo Lopez (three years, $30 million) in the $10 million-12 million-a-year cohort.
BOSTON — Red Sox manager Alex Cora will miss Monday’s series opener against the New York Mets at Fenway Park so he can attend his daughter’s college graduation.
Cora’s daughter, Camila, will be graduating from nearby Boston College.
“It’s going to be a very special day — one that I’m not going to miss,” Cora said before Sunday’s game vs. the Atlanta Braves. “I 100% will miss the game for that. I will do that any given day. It’s going to be a very special day for us.”
Cora reflected on how the time has seemed to go quickly and spoke about how fast his daughter seemed to grow up.
“It went fast, it went really fast,” Cora said of her time in college. “For a girl from divorced parents, her mom did an amazing job, staying the course while I was playing and coaching and doing my ESPN thing. … She’s actually a reflection of her. I appreciate everything she’s done for her and for us.”
Asked if he’ll be able to hold back his emotions at the ceremony, Cora smiled and said “We’ll see,” before bringing up memories of when his daughter was at the 2018 World Series victory celebration and a postseason series wrap-up win over Tampa Bay in ’21 at Fenway.
“It’s going to be an amazing day. It happened fast,” he said. “You put everything into perspective, you go back to the videos of ’18, she was a little girl.
“Then you go back to ’21 when she hopped onto the field when we beat Tampa, she was still a little girl. Now, she’s not a little girl,” he said. “She’s a woman. She had fun with it. She’s a great student and the future’s bright for her.”
MILWAUKEE — Brewers pitcher Tobias Myers is going back to the minors as he continues to struggle to match the success he enjoyed as a rookie last year.
The Brewers optioned Myers to Triple-A Nashville on Sunday while selecting right-handed pitcher Easton McGee from Triple-A and transferring left-handed pitcher Connor Thomas to the 60-day injured list.
Myers is 1-1 with a 4.95 ERA in six appearances, including five starts. He allowed four runs over 3 2/3 innings in a 7-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.
The right-hander had gone 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA last season and was selected the Brewers’ most valuable pitcher by the Milwaukee chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He closed that season by pitching five scoreless innings in the decisive Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series against the New York Mets, a game the Brewers lost 4-2 by allowing four runs in the ninth.
“I love the kid, man,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after Saturday’s game. “You saw it in Game 3, that’s in there. So we’ve got to get back to that.”
The Brewers had optioned Myers to Nashville a week ago, but he didn’t actually pitch there before rejoining the big-league club after left-hander José Quintana went on the injured list with a left shoulder issue. Now he’s heading back to Nashville.
Myers entered Saturday having walked 10 batters over 16 1/3 innings. He didn’t walk anyone Saturday, but gave up a career-high 11 hits.
“My goal was to fill the zone up and kind of get away from the walks I’ve been dealing with,” Myers said after the game. “I think I just filled it up a little too much.”
McGee went 1-0 with a 3.44 ERA and 20 strikeouts over 18 1/3 innings in 13 relief appearances with Nashville.
McGee appeared in one game for Tampa Bay in 2022 and one game for Seattle in 2023.In the only two games he has pitched in the big leagues, McGee has allowed just one unearned run over 9 2/3 innings while striking out three and allowing five hits and one walk.
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