Kenta Maeda making home debut in Los Angeles, eyes on shaky bullpen
The Los Angeles Dodgers are finally ready for their home opener Tuesday afternoon with the franchise’s top offseason acquisition ready to take the mound.
The Dodgers landed Kenta Maeda from the Japan Central League, paying a $20 million posting fee for his rights during the winter, investing another $25 million in guaranteed money in an incentive-laden eight-year contract. Only time will tell if Maeda proves to be worth it, but he looked solid in his first start last week at San Diego, going six innings and allowing just five hits. He also hit a solo home run in the Dodgers’ 7-0 win.
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The home crowd at Dodgers Stadium will see Maeda in person for the first time as Los Angeles hosts Arizona in Yahoo Sports’ Free MLB Game of the Day on Tuesday (4:10 p.m. ET). A stream of the contest will be available at sports.yahoo.com/videos.
While it’s a big day for Maeda, the franchise has larger concerns with its bullpen. Dodgers relievers haven’t started the season well, blowing several leads over the weekend at San Francisco. Louis Coleman, Yimi Garcia, Chris Hatcher and J.P. Howell all had moments in which they struggled in the first week of the season and some of those problems contributed directly to losses.
It’s nothing for manager Dave Roberts to be panicked about, especially since closer Kenley Jansen has been on his game and Pedro Baez is off to a solid start. But watching your bullpen give up 12 runs and 17 hits in 10 2/3 innings isn’t exactly confidence boosting for any manager or front office early in the season.
[Bartolo Colon delighted fans with over-the-shoulder catch]
In the visiting dugout is an Arizona team that made a splash in the offseason by signing pitcher Zack Grienke away from the Dodgers and adding pitcher Shelby Miller in a trade. Those additions haven’t paid off in the early going with both Greinke and Miller getting hammered so far and the Diamondbacks starting 2-5.
Greinke is 0-2 with a 9.90 ERA. He has allowed 16 hits and 11 earned runs in 10 innings. Miller has given up 15 hits and 10 earned runs in in 11 innings and has a 8.18 ERA. Neither pitcher is expected to see action in this first series of the season against the Dodgers.
Watching the big additions to the pitching staff implode in the first week has been bad enough in Arizona, but the pain has been compounded by the loss of center fielder A.J. Pollock to a broken arm. He could miss the entire season.
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
