Kenta Maeda’s career in Major League Baseball certainly seemed over in November, when he elected free agency following the expiration of his contract with the New York Yankees.
Maeda, 37, then announced on his Instagram account that he was headed back to his native Japan after pitching parts of nine seasons (2016-25) in MLB.
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This week Maeda put pen to paper, signing a reported two-year contract with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball, the top league in Japan.
While it’s always possible a resurgent season in Japan could attract the notice of a major league team, Maeda’s career in the U.S. appears finished.
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“I’m really looking forward to getting to play in Japan again after so long,” Maeda said in a press conference at Rakuten Mobile Park Miyagi in Sendai on Tuesday, according to the Japan News. “That feeling of excitement is number one for me right now.”
Maeda made 226 major league starts across nine seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2016-19), Minnesota Twins (2020-23) and Detroit Tigers (2024-25). He pitched 986.2 innings across his career, striking out 1,055 batters.
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Before this week, Maeda’s last professional contract was the minor league deal he signed with the Yankees in August. In eight starts for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, Maeda went 3-3 with a 4.64 ERA.
His brief time in the Yankees’ organization began shortly after he was released from his minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs.
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Maeda made 12 starts for Triple-A Iowa in 2025, goin 3-4 with a 5.97 ERA.
Maeda has accumulated 165 wins over an 18-year career that began in 2008 with the Hiroshima Carp. He pitched eight seasons for the Carp before signing with the Dodgers in January 2016.
“Above all, I want to demonstrate good pitching and become the kind of pitcher that people want to come to the stadium to watch,” Maeda said Tuesday.
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