Dodgers Rumors: Further Maeda Details Surfacing

Andrew Friedman and his team don’t make any straightforward deals. This is the caveat to any reporting on any agreement they come to on either the trade or free agent markets.

As reports surface about the contract that might entice Kenta Maeda into crossing the Pacific to pitch for the Dodgers and the deal is called complicated even for Friedman’s standards, I can’t help but reach for my old graphing calculator, which is out of battery. Cool.

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Joel Sherman of the New York Post updates the situation:

If it matters, heard guarantee on Maeda’s deal with #Dodgers is 8yrs at $25M, not $24M. Gambling on self with tons of performance bonuses

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) January 2, 2016

With a base just north of $3 million per season over basically the next decade, one would hope the incentives listed in the contract would be exceptionally easy to make. It would make sense that the Dodgers would offer a incentive-laden contract of this kind of length.

For Maeda, he gets the opportunity to pitch in a major market and pitcher’s ballpark and get paid quite well to do so, so long as he meets expectations.

The Dodgers get the right arm their rotation desperately needs with flexibility if Maeda doesn’t pitch up to the standards his bonuses require.

Details will continue to roll in as the deal takes shape but so far, so good. Now, I have to figure out what kind of batteries this old calculator takes.