RADIO
Kenta Maeda is a starting pitcher fantasy baseball draft sleeper, and an ADP draft value for 2024. Target Maeda as an undervalued SP in fantasy baseball drafts.
BALLER MOVE: Target in drafts ~pick 258
CURRENT ADP: ~275 overall
ANALYSIS: The 2023 version of Maeda looked a lot more like what we had come to expect from him during his time in L.A. and his first season in Minnesota (2020). In his age 35 season, after coming off an entire missed season due to Tommy John surgery, Maeda delivered a solid season, holding opposing hitters to a .237 average with a 27.3% K% and a 6.5% BB%.
He got better as the season went along, and after the All-Star Break, he posted a 3.79 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, and 82 strikeouts over 71 ⅓ innings.
Now he heads to Detroit as the third starter in a revamped Tigers rotation that could be pretty good if things go right. If Maeda can stay healthy, he's a good candidate to provide solid ratios as the crafty veteran uses his slider and changeup to keep hitters off guard even with a fastball that tops out around 91 MPH.
Despite his age, Maeda is still generating over a strikeout per inning, which makes him an intriguing option if you lack punchouts. The right-handed pitcher had a 27.3 K% and a 31.2 chase%, placing him in the 77th and 76th percentile among qualified pitchers, respectively.
Maeda relied heavily on his split-finger pitch last season as he threw it 31.9% of the time and generated a significant number of whiffs along the way with a 31.5 K% and 35 Whiff%.
Maeda may be past his prime, but he is still a reliable strikeout option who may have found a second wind late in his career.
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