Kenta Maeda is in a rut by himself, deeper now than ever. Entering Tuesday, 100 MLB pitchers had made at least 15 starts this season. Maeda was the only with an earned run average starting with a 6. Now it starts with a 7.
The Tigers' biggest external signing under Scott Harris, Maeda was bombed yet again Tuesday night. He spotted the Guardians a 6-0 lead before he left the mound to boos with two outs in the third, in what turned into a rare game of wasted offense for the Tigers. They rallied to get Maeda off the hook, but lost 9-8 in extras. As it is, they've lost his last eight starts.
"There’s definitely frustration," Maeda said through his interpreter. "Nothing really is going right at this point and I’m causing too much trouble to the team. I feel sorry about that."
Harris gave Maeda a two-year, $24 million deal in the offseason, the only multi-year free-agent deal of his tenure as president of baseball operations in Detroit. The Tigers have shown a good eye for pitching under Harris, who felt Maeda's strong finish last season with the Twins was a sign of things to come: "Kenta has a chance to be as good as any pitcher in our division,” he told reporters in spring training. “I think he demonstrated that down the stretch."
Maybe missing from that calculation were these two variables: Meada was about to turn 36 and had been a mostly-average starter over seven seasons in the big leagues. Now he's the worst starter in the big leagues, wearing an ERA of 7.26 in year one with the Tigers. At this rate, there might not be a year two.
"Reflecting on my baseball career, I don’t think I’ve struggled this badly. And not finding the solution has led to the results of this season," Maeda said. "It’s not that I’m not trying, I’m doing my best and my hardest to bounce back, but things just aren’t happening. Hopefully I can continue to work hard and focus on finding the solution."
That's the Tigers' focus, too. They don't have the appetite to eat the contract. They'll try everything they can to salvage what's left of Maeda's arm. The All-Star break, as A.J. Hinch pointed out after Tuesday's loss, is "coming at a good time." It's also past time to reconsider Maeda's spot in the rotation and if a stint in Toledo would help. As a team that lives by Hinch's mantra of trying "to win today's game," how much longer can the Tigers afford to trot Maeda out there every fifth day?
"The No. 1 goal is to get him right, and we’ve gotta unlock the things that he needs to do to be more effective," said Hinch. "It’s pretty fresh after the game obviously, so we haven’t talked about it, but regardless of anything that we do, we gotta get him right. And we gotta find a way to get him to pitch more clean innings."
Maeda missed all of 2022 after Tommy John surgery and battled a viral illness earlier this year, but said Tuesday that he feels "fine physically. No problems." That's a problem of its own. He's healthy and getting hit like never before, allowing by far the highest barrel rate of his career. The Guardians drilled four balls that left the bat at 95-plus mph in the first inning alone, including homers by the second and fourth batters of the game.
It couldn't end quickly enough. By the time Maeda served up three more runs in the third, Hinch was striding out of the dugout to yank him. He nearly beat him back to the mound after Maeda's final pitch of the night. The veteran right-hander has allowed 16 hits and 15 runs in his last two starts. He looks exhausted at times, bent at the waist with his hands on his knees. Dazed at others, his neck craned to the sky. Out of answers, he's starting to sound defeated.
"It’s hard to narrow it down to just one problem or pinpoint one thing," Maeda said. "It’s just my pitching overall hasn’t been effective."
He's tried new workout programs between starts. He's tinkered with pitches. He's tested different approaches, like working more quickly Tuesday night. He said he's searching for "anything that will get me out of this, anything that will get me better." None of it's worked. Hinch and the Tigers can't start him in good conscience Sunday against the Dodgers, not if they're trying to win.
The next step is likely a get-right trip to Toledo, which Maeda would have to accept. At this point, what other choice does he have?