The Los Angeles Dodgers may not have re-signed Zack Greinke or signed any of the marquee free-agent starting pitchers that were once available, but they’ve managed to round out their rotation with cost-effective and quality additions in Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda.
In Maeda’s case, he signed an eight-year, $25 million deal in which he can earn over $100 million by triggering bonuses.
Meanwhile, Kazmir signed a three-year, $48 million pact that includes an opt-out clause after the 2016 season.
It has been an interesting road for Kazmir, who was a combined 7-11 with a 3.10 ERA, 3.98 FIP and 1.21 WHIP over 18 starts with the Oakland Athletics and 13 with the Houston Astros in 2015.
He suffered a few setbacks, specifically in his time with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which led to him being released in June 2011.
The southpaw was out of the Majors for the entire 2012 season as he played for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League. The Cleveland Indians took a chance on him in 2013, and he has since gotten his career back on track.
According to Jon Weisman of Dodger Insider, Kazmir used the setbacks to reset himself and build back up:
“It was a long process,” Kazmir said in a conference call with reporters [Tuesday]. “It was definitely a low point of me getting released by the Angels. I kind of wanted to take a step back and start from scratch — go back to fundamentals and really give myself great habits, and get away from those bad habits I created. Just hard work, going through winter ball and independent ball and slowly getting things back, slowly feeling comfortable and just getting to know my body more – I think that was the big difference for me.”
Kazmir is a career 98-90 with a 3.96 ERA, 3.97 FIP and 1.35 WHIP over 11 seasons. Next year will be his first in the National League after spending time with the Tampa Bay Rays (2004-09), Angels (2009-11), Indians (2013), Athletics (2014-15) and Astros (2015).
One person who admired Kazmir’s comeback is Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi, who was with the Athletics when they took a gamble on signing Kazmir to a two-year contract prior to the 2014 season.
