2:13pm: The Dodgers are interested in Maeda and are maintaining contact with his representatives in advance of the January 8th deadline, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports tweets.
12:35pm: The deadline for an MLB team to sign Kenta Maeda is January 8th at 5pm ET/4pm CT, according to Jon Morosi of FOX Sports (on Twitter).  Meanwhile, MLBTR has learned that the Hiroshima Toyo Carp have set the release fee at $20MM, the maximum allowed by the agreement between MLB and NPB.  Any team willing to meet that $20MM asking price will have the right to negotiate with Maeda over the next couple of weeks.
The question now is, which teams will be making a serious run at Maeda?  We learned recently that the Red Sox will not submit a bid to negotiate with Maeda thanks to the mammoth deal given to David Price.  At the Winter Meetings, Giants GM Bobby Evans told MLBTR that his club had internal conversations about Maeda, but they’re almost certainly out on him after adding Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto.  The Padres will not be in the mix, despite sending a number of club officials to Japan in November.  The Cardinals looked to be one possibility, but they’re probably not considering the Japanese star after inking Mike Leake to a five-year, $80MM deal.
The Dodgers would appear to be a solid fit for Maeda after losing Zack Greinke to free agency and tearing up their agreement with Hisashi Iwaukma. Â They have been expected to be among the teams in the hunt for the right-hander, but there hasn’t been any definitive word on that as of late.
Maeda, 28 in April, is widely considered to be one of the best pitchers in Japan. He just wrapped up a season in which he pitched to a 2.09 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 across 206 1/3 innings, marking his sixth consecutive season with an earned run average of 2.60 or better. His excellent 2015 season netted Maeda his second Sawamura Award — Japan’s equivalent to the Cy Young Award. With his relative youth, dominant track record and, of course, lack of draft pick compensation, Maeda immediately becomes one of the more intriguing arms on the free-agent market.  MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes forecasted a five-year, $60MM deal for Maeda this winter.  When factoring in a release fee of $20MM, that amounts to an $80MM commitment overall.
This would be a great consolation prize for the Dodgers.
It at least a step forward.
It’s a bit sad to be considering consolation prizes, but yes, he would be better than nothing, which is pretty much the other option remaining at this point,
With a lot of large players out does it create the possibility of a surprise team like possibly the Twins?
This reeks of Cespedes 2.0 for Oakland actually. Does something like 20 + 2/20 get him?
I think he may favor years over AAV but would not be shocking if he took a short deal to get a bigger pay day after hes proved him self. Really comes down to do Teams favor 20 million or the first round pick attached to Gallardo/Kazmir.
Misspoke no QO attached to Kazmir
Why would a team pay 20M for negotiating rights and then sign him to a short term deal?
As an A’s fan, this almost reaks more of Hector Olivera last year. Sure, it won’t be as late in the offseason, but right when you think a guy’s market is dry the Dodgers swoop in with a godfather offer of sort.
Dodgers aren’t spending as much anymore though – look around.
In what way does it reek of anything? What are you basing that on?
Where is this $30m you see the A’s as having left to spend this year? They already gave $15m-$20m to Madsen, Alvarez, and Hill.
They gave Cespedes like $8m his first year and got to control him for three more years and you think they will shell out $30 for Maeda while being able to control him for just one more year? How are rhose comparable scenarios?
Uhhh it reeks of everyone saying they had “no chance” of getting Cespedes, how they already had spent all their money…basically everything in your ignorant post.
The A’s do not have salary caps, where are you seeing that they have a hard spending cap?
They also are wildly unpredictable. Hence them being in on Maeda shouldn’t be a surprise, if that is that case. Plenty of parallels between this and Cespedes.
Was trying to add, he picked a bad year to be posted Gallardo, Kazmir still on the market he may have to settle for 5/50. Dodgers may be complacent and place a “Safe” bid.
The “bid” will be 20 million by a bunch of teams, then they will get to negotiate with those teams, I can very well see 5/60 + the 20 million dollar bid. Sounds like he’s a 3/4 type.
Wrong the 20 million is a posting fee. The bidding will be who is willing to give him the contract he likes the most.
Wanted the cubs to go after him but Heyward, Zobrist, and Lackey all but confirm that won’t be happening.. I don’t want the salary to be depleted in one off season with the snake needing an extension soon…
Cubs still a dark horse. Buy maeda or trade Baez amd or soler for pitching. Maeda would fit young controllable pitcher
In an ideal world. I’d shop Montero. Trade for Lucroy. Use the 8 mill saved to take a chance on Maeda but ain’t gonna happen lol.
Lol at the dodger fans in a hurry to sign a top pitcher. You all getting greedy he would be a great fit for my braves though.
Why? They have no interest in competing right now. If I were a Braves fan, I would not want him.
Innings eater we need that badly plus he could give advice to the younger guys and help them move along could be a great teacher for them.
For the type of money he’s gonna get?
Sign guys like the below and save the money.
Guthrie / Arroyo / Buehrle / Lohse / Kendrick / Floyd
I agree with greatd and think that Buehrle would make a great teacher for our young guys. Not sure what kind of language barrier Maeda may have coming from Japan.
Would you really want to commit $80mm for a teacher? Seems like a steep price for a non-contender as others have already mentioned..
Really bravosfan? You expect a guy who has never pitched in this league, doesn’t speak the language, and is going to be unfamiliar with the culture to come right in and be a mentor to the younger guys?
Well you never know cause Kershaw and Kuroda were said to be great friends back then.
There’s a difference between being friends and being a mentor. Kershaw also had guys like, Maddux, Penny, Loaiza, Wolf, Weaver, Padilla, Milton, Garland, Schmidt, etc on those early teams. Plenty of good to great veteran pitchers on those 2008-2010 Dodger teams, I doubt it was Kuroda he learned the most from.
You do have a point there.
Thanks for the reply^^
What advice can he give? He has no mob experience and doesn’t speak English.
eh, why shouldn’t we be. it’s a pretty obvious fit isn’t it. dodgers need a guy, they have a long history with asian pitchers / international players in general, they can afford it, he’ll be a little cheaper because he’s unproven over here, a lot of other teams are out of the market already… the arrows we in the public can see kind of all point maeda -> dodgers. obviously you never know what’ll happen until it happens. maybe their internal evaluation of him isn’t that good. but if they like him, it’s extremely easy to picture it happening
and how are we “getting greedy” we haven’t signed anybody, y’all keep making fun of us for not signing anybody, then as soon as we try to sign one guy we’re “getting greedy”
Not agreeing with the other guys at all but you guys are way above the luxury tax though right? Can’t blame some of the people for thinking that way.
oh, well, as far as the overall payroll, sure. it’s a rich team. i just don’t think it’s particularly greedy of the fans to hope their win-now team makes a fourth attempt to add one pitcher this offseason, that’s all i’m saying
agree with you there. just saying that some guys probably view you guys that way.
I would much rather have Maeda than Iwakuma. He is younger and does not cost a draft pick IF, the Dodgers pick him up, I would want to see a contract that his heavily front loaded. Something along the lines of Hector Olivera’s contract. I thought it was a brilliant strategy to give a guy a huge signing bonus, and then sell him for prospects. Friedman and Zaidi basically just purchased young guys like Wood and Peraza (a very brilliant way to use deep pockets to load the farm system). IF we get Maeda, and give him a huge bonus, we could possibly trade him with his value high (and low cost) to 1) allow roster flexibility for guys like Urias, Montas, De Leon or Holmes and 2) Gain more prospects in return IF Maeda is traded.
I really hope the Os make a move to get him. Kazmir is way to risky, Gallardo cost a pick, and Chen is represented by Boras and would lose them a pick. He looks like a solid 2 capable of replacing Chen.
Signing Chen would not lose the O’s a pick. He is their free agent. If you mean from the sense that signing him would lose getting a pick from another team, yes that is correct. But you can’t lose something you don’t have.
I intentionally said lose them a pick instead of cost them one like Gallardo just to avoid semantics yet here u are.
Again, they can’t lose something that they don’t have. If he doesn’t sign anywhere before the amateur draft, they still get nothing. They don’t have a guaranteed pick for him until something official is announced, so I am not sure where the sense of entitlement to a non-existent draft pick comes from.
Mystery team come forth!
The big moneys on the diamondbacks but the blue jays, nats, rangers…maeda makes sense for a lot of teams that would rather have high upside than the low expectations attached to Gallardo or Kaz
Doubt az is a mystery team I think they pretty much solved their pitching problems. They better focus on other areas of need
Why would the Leake signing take St. Louis out the running…yes leake is going to make 16 million per year but the Cards need pitching with the unknown about how long Martinez will be out or if his arm will hold up for the season. Also you can’t count on Garcia making it a whole year. If the price is right why not take a shot. It won’t cost a draft pick and we have seen how reluctant St. Louis is to sign players with draft picks tied to them
Because they really only needed to replace one pitcher and the of is a bigger issue for them
I hope the Phillies put in a serious offer for Maeda as he could grow with the team as we get better. Andy Mc Phail had a good track record of signing Asian players while he was with Baltimore.
Gotta be the Dodgers. 4-year $60 mil.
I still the Dodgers getting Fernandez. If the Marlins decide to get rid of him without needing Seager, that trade gets done. Expect Urias, De Leon, Puig et al on their way to Miami by the end of February.
so in otherwords that deal will not get done, there is no chance marlins are trading him to dodgers without getting seager back
You do know that marlins want the dodgers top five prospect even if you don’t in Count urais or seager they still want their top five and puig is far from a prospect.
the dodgers are out of options but to outbid everyone to get Maeda.
Dodgers still have ton of options its all down to if they want to spend the amount of money getting whoever or if they are willing to trade one or more prospect
wonder if the Dodgers are starting to save for the 2018 sweep stakes. you’d think if they really wanted someone they would have outbid people for them already.
For me its like they are more concerned about lower in the budget than being win now mode every year
Recent history as well as having a Friedman-run front office *should* tell the thinking man that the Dodgers are looking to do most of their acquisitions through big trades. Trades aren’t dependent upon which FA’s are available. You DO realize that – yes?
But fa so far is their best option if they are not willing to trade any of their top prospect outside of seager, urais or Joc.