One of the bright moments for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season was the successful campaign Kenta Maeda turned in after health concerns clouded his signing to an eight-year contract. Maeda finished as the lone starting pitcher in the rotation who was not lost to the disabled list at some point.
In 32 starts, he went 16-11 with a 3.48 ERA, 3.58 FIP and 1.14 WHIP, and finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting. Albeit in part due to Clayton Kershaw missing significant time with a back injury, Maeda led the Dodgers in starts.
However, the right-hander battled fatigue in some outings and down the stretch of the season. A byproduct of that was Maeda only managing to pitch 175.2 innings on the season. That’s a number he plans to increase this year.
“I want to work hard to improve on last season and throw 200 innings,” Maeda said Saturday at Dodgers FanFest. In order to accomplish that, the 28-year-old has focused on building strength this offseason.
“I haven’t really changed anything with my offseason program, but my main focus was to get stronger and bigger,” he explained. “It’s not really about gaining weight. It’s more about being able to go through 200 innings, throw all season long and putting endurance and stamina on my body.”
Adjusting to life as an MLB pitcher required Maeda to start every five days, as opposed to once a week in Japan. The Dodgers did provide him with an extra day of rest whenever possible, but are hopeful to move away from such strategy this season.
Maeda is understanding that in order to throw 200 innings this season, it would require him to regularly start on normal rest. That factored into a decision for Maeda to skip pitching for Team Japan in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
“I talked to the [Dodgers] and they didn’t really want me pitching in the WBC,” he said. “For me, I really want to pitch well this season for the Dodgers and make sure we get to the goal we want to get to.”
Maeda has yet to thrown off a mound this offseason, which isn’t different from previous offseasons, but estimated he would do so at least two times prior to reporting for Spring Training.
Maeda is a part of a deep Dodgers rotation, as he, Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill are locks to make the rotation, Julio Urias, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Alex Wood, Ross Stripling and Brock Stewart all battling for the remaining spots.
