Kuzul

The Los Angeles Dodgers definitely have problems in their bullpen, and they definitely need to seek out solutions.

What’s not so definite is that Julio Urias is the one they’re looking for.

The Dodgers haven’t yet called on Urias, their No. 1 prospect and the top left-handed pitching prospect in the sport, to join their relief corps. But it wasn’t even two weeks ago that the idea was in the air.

“Where we’re at right now, Urias is leading the discussions,” Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts said in early May, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. “He can get lefties and rightes out. It’s a nice luxury if we decide to go that way.”

Urias hasn’t gotten any less appealing in the days since. Though he’s still only 19—hence his Twitter handle—the Mexico native is with Triple-A Oklahoma City and making older hitters look like chumps. In seven appearances, he’s racked up a 1.25 ERA with 39 strikeouts and eight walks in 36 innings. Presently, he’s working on a 22-inning scoreless streak.

“In my report tonight, I commented that I wasn’t sure if there’s much more for him to prove,” Oklahoma City pitching coach Matt Herges said after Urias‘ latest effort, per Michael Avallone of MiLB.com. “He’s showing he’s big league-ready now, in my opinion.”

In the meantime, the Dodgers bullpen continues to make Roberts reach for the aspirin. Kenley Jansen is still a stabilizing force in the ninth inning, but the bridge to him is as sturdy as a rope bridge in an Indiana Jones movie. The Dodgers bullpen has a 3.74 ERA, but the ERA of non-Jansen relievers is 4.30.

It’s not hard to imagine Urias as the setup man the Dodgers are looking for. He has a lively fastball that, as MLB.com notes, he’s pushed as high as 97 mph in the past. His changeup and breaking ball are also above-average offerings that could play up in a relief role.

Urias is a starter by trade, sure, but he’s not yet ready to play that role in the majors. As J.J. Cooper wrote at Baseball America, the southpaw is still working on attaining the durability to match his talent, and he is therefore “not necessarily ready to take a regular turn in a big league rotation.”

And as Phil Rogers of MLB.com observed, working out of the bullpen before transitioning into the rotation could result in Urias walking the Chris Sale path to stardom:

But if we’re going to get on with the debunking process, this is a good place to start.

Sale was also a hot left-handed prospect back in the day, but that’s the extent of the similarities between him then and Urias now. Sale was already 21 years old when the Chicago White Sox took him with the No. 13 pick in the 2010 draft. He was also in the middle of a junior season at Florida Gulf Coast University that resulted in over 100 innings pitched (h/t the Baseball Cube).

And when the White Sox promptly put Sale in their bullpen, they were placing him in a role that he was arguably best suited for. As Keith Law of ESPN.com wrote at the time, Sale’s funky delivery and arm action made it “reasonably likely” that he would spend his career as a reliever.

Sale therefore had the experience and the workload, but not necessarily the projection of a starting pitcher. The White Sox’s decision to throw him into a relief role killed two birds with one stone: It filled an immediate need, and it gave them a chance to evaluate Sale up close before deciding on his future.

Urias is a different pitcher on all fronts, most notably in his long-term projection. He may only be 6’0″, but he’s a sturdy 215 pounds. He also has a clean delivery. And as Baseball Prospectus noted, his good stuff comes with a surprisingly advanced feel for pitching. He’s not a reliever masquerading as a starter. He’s a starter all the way.

All Urias needs is experience. He was only 16 when he began his professional career and has yet to top even 90 innings in a season. Some of that is owed to health issues, such as cosmetic surgery on his left eye that sidelined him for a month in 2015. Otherwise, it’s owed to the Dodgers handling him with kid gloves.

Before the season, Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi was aware this needed to change. He told Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times: “[Urias‘] innings are clearly going to be trending upwards for the next couple of seasons as we try to build him up to a full workload.”

So far, so good. Urias lasted five innings in each of his first three starts. In his last three, he’s made it to six innings. If he stays on this track, he’ll have no problem blowing away his current single-season high of 87.2 innings.

But if the Dodgers stick him in their bullpen, that’s suddenly in jeopardy. There’s always the possibility that him airing it out in shorter appearances could lead to an injury. And even if he were to stay healthy and give the Dodgers a better bullpen in the short run, it may not be worth it in the long run.

The Dodgers aren’t going to use Urias as a reliever forever, so they’re going to have to get his workload to where it needs to be eventually. If they make him a reliever this year, he’ll begin 2017 in basically the same position he’s in now. That’s a valuable development year wasted.

Rather than the Sale route, it’s the Felix Hernandez route to stardom the Dodgers should have in mind. The Seattle Mariners brought him up for a look-see in his age-19 season in 2005 and put him in their rotation at age 20 the next year. That was the start of a full decade of good pitching, and Hernandez is still going strong today. The Dodgers have a chance to do the same thing with Urias.

Granted, they most certainly need another shutdown reliever to bridge the gap to Jansen. But those are a lot easier to find than young pitchers with ace potential. Teams can trade for the former. With the latter, teams generally have to make their own.

That’s the course the Dodgers are on with Urias. They should stay on it.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers have gotten off to a slow start this season, so an injury to Adrian Gonzalez‘s back is not what their lineup needed to see. The first baseman suffered the injury on Monday, and it’s unclear when he’ll return to the field. 

Continue for updates. 

Gonzalez Out vs. Angels

Tuesday, May 17

The Dodgers announced Gonzalez won’t play Tuesday against their Los Angeles counterparts. 

Reliable Gonzalez Crucial to Dodgers Offense 

Gonzalez is one of Major League Baseball’s most durable players, appearing in at least 156 games every season since 2006. He’s also one of the Dodgers’ most valuable offensive weapons, leading the team in homers and RBI each of the last three years. 

The Dodgers’ All-Star first baseman was banged up down the stretch last season, having been taken out of the lineup during a series against the Colorado Rockies due to back problems.

It was a lingering problem that’s altered Gonzalez’s performance in the second half of 2015, as his slugging percentage dropped nearly 100 points in the second half. That drop in power has continued into this season, with the former All-Star slugging .408 percent coming into Monday, but he’s still hitting for average and getting on base. 

The Dodgers don’t have a deep lineup around Gonzalez, though Chase Utley has been surprisingly strong so far and rookie Corey Seager is slowly coming into his own. 

The Dodgers are facing stiff competition in the National League West, as San Francisco and Arizona made big improvements in the offseason, so losing a hitter as consistent and reliable as Gonzalez alters the division’s dynamic.

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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw continued to be in top form, posting his fifth straight start with at least 10 strikeouts in a 5-0 win over the New York Mets on Thursday.

Kershaw is the first Dodgers pitcher since 1913 to put together such a strikeout streak, per MLB Stat of the Day:

That means Kershaw has accomplished something even Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and Orel Hershiser couldn’t do.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner and 2014 National League MVP could add to his trophy case at the end of the year, as the Dodgers’ ace (4-1) is having a phenomenal 2016 campaign, which MLB.com’s Mike Petriello pointed out:

ESPN Stats & Info added another stat to highlight Kershaw’s dominance:

If Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta was not also dominating this season, Kershaw would be the runaway favorite for another Cy Young honor. Arrieta is 6-0 with a microscopic 1.13 ERA.

If both pitchers keep up their play throughout the season, Arrieta may get a slight edge since the Cubs appear likely to finish with one of the best records in baseball. Regardless, Kershaw is still a generational talent whom fans should appreciate as a future first-ballot Hall of Famer.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers have suspended troubled infielder Erisbel Arruebarrena for the remainder of the 2016 season. 

Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler announced Arruebarrena’s suspension Wednesday “for repeated failure to comply with the terms of his contract,” per Eric Stephen of True Blue LA. Barry Lewis of Tulsa World noted this is the second time in less than one year the Dodgers have suspended Arruebarrena.

Arruebarrena’s career with the Dodgers has been a disappointment basically since he signed with the team. The 26-year-old received a five-year, $25 million contract in February 2014 and was expected to be their shortstop of the future. 

Stephen broke down the remaining money that Arruebarrena is owed for his contract with the Dodgers:

After spending six weeks in the minors during the 2014 season, Arruebarrena was called up to the big leagues on May 23 while Hanley Ramirez sat out a few games due to injuries. He played a total of 22 games in his debut season, hitting .195/.244/.220 in 41 at-bats. 

Arruebarrena’s most infamous moment in 2014 came on July 26 while playing with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes. He started a brawl with the Reno Aces that led to 10 total ejections. The Dodgers designated him for assignment that winter, but he wound up reassigned to the minors after no team claimed him. 

On May 21, 2015, the Dodgers placed Arruebarrena on the suspended list for not complying with his contract. He filed an appeal of the suspension with Major League Baseball, and the Dodgers ended up reducing his punishment to 30 days.

The Cuban star played 17 games with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers this season before being suspended. He was hitting .182/.224/.400 in 55 at-bats. 

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Major League Baseball announced on Monday that Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Josh Ravin tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance. As a result, he will be suspended 80 games without pay.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports initially reported the news and cited sources who said the pitcher “tested positive for a banned peptide.”

Ravin issued a statement after the ruling, via Jill Martin of CNN:

Passan noted Ravin is the sixth major league player to be disciplined for performance-enhancing drugs this year. Ravin is yet to appear in a game in 2016 because he broke his arm in a car accident at spring training.

Despite his injury, Ravin is on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster and was expected back in May, per Passan. Now he will not be available to join the bullpen until after July’s All-Star break.

In addition to Ravin, Passan said Miami Marlins star and defending National League batting champion Dee Gordon, Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Chris Colabello, Cleveland Indians center fielder Abraham Almonte and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Daniel Stumpf were suspended for 80 games for PEDs.

What’s more, New York Mets relief pitcher Jenrry Mejia tested positive for a third time in February and was given a lifetime ban.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander responded to the Gordon suspension on Twitter (warning: contains NSFW language): “This PED s–t is killing me. If you test positive, you need to not play. You shouldn’t be allowed to [affect] games while appealing.”

Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com described MLB’s testing system as “a drug-testing program that has instituted harsher penalties several times over the years and remains the strictest PED system in American professional sports.”

As for Ravin, he made his major league debut for the Dodgers last season and pitched 9.1 innings with a 6.75 ERA, 12 strikeouts and a 1.82 WHIP. Passan said the 28-year-old righty was in the minor leagues for a decade before he finally broke into the majors in 2015.

Ravin has a plus-fastball (Passan described it as a pitch that “touched 99 mph”), and when he returns, he could bolster a Dodgers club that is a middling 16th in the league in bullpen ERA as of Monday, per ESPN.com.

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Entering play Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers were in a free fall.

They’d dropped six straight to the lowly Miami Marlins and punchless San Diego Padres. They’d slid a game below .500 and were looking less and less like big-spending, three-time defending division champs.

Then Clayton Kershaw swooped in and, for an afternoon at least, single-handedly stopped the nosedive in a 1-0 victory at Chavez Ravine. All that was missing was a cape and tights.

Really, at this point, we’re running out of adjectives to describe Kershaw. Brilliant, dominant, filthy, transcendent—all apply, plus a bunch more. Grab your thesaurus and go to work.

The latest evidence of the lanky left-hander’s amazingness came at the expense of the Pads. For nine frames, Kershaw was utterly in control, racking up 14 strikeouts with nary a walk and only a trio of singles between him and perfection.

Heck, only two of his 27 outs left the infield, as MLB.com’s Jack Baer and AJ Cassavell noted.

As if that weren’t enough, Kershaw also picked up the Dodgers’ lackluster offense, driving in the game’s only run with a single in the third and possibly inspiring the following internal monologue, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times‘ Andy McCullough:

In the process, Kershaw did something that hasn’t been done in more than three decades, per ESPN Stats & Info:

With Sunday’s glistening gem—his 13th career shutout—Kershaw now sports a 1.96 ERA to pair with an MLB-leading 54 strikeouts in 46 innings.

Yes, on Tuesday Los Angeles will face another game without Kershaw on the mound (or at the plate) as it heads east to open a two-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays. He can only do his thing every fifth day.

As long as he’s wearing Dodger blue, however, this team is dangerous. It’s that simple.

Oh, there’s talent on the rest of the roster. Despite an anemic streak during which the team has plated a scant 12 runs in seven games, the hits will come courtesy of reliable studs like first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and budding stars like shortstop Corey Seager. 

And while Kershaw’s former co-ace, Zack Greinke, split for a massive payday with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Japanese import Kenta Maeda looks like a more-than-capable No. 2 after posting a 1.41 ERA through a month of starts.

The Dodgers aren’t perfect. There are questions at the back end of the rotation and in the bullpen. And mercurial outfielders Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig need to find consistent grooves.

But this team is good enough to fend off the D-Backs and even-year San Francisco Giants.

If that happens, it’ll begin and end with Kershaw. He’s the franchise linchpin. The guy with the case full of Cy Young trophies and a National League MVP Award. 

He might have temporarily ceded the title of best pitcher in baseball to the Chicago Cubs‘ Jake Arrieta. 

But make no mistake: Kershaw is a generational talent, the type of arm that will be referenced in subsequent decades. As in: This guy is so stellar, he’s positively Kershaw-esque. 

Here’s one instructive measure of Kershaw’s greatness, per MLB.com’s Michael Clair:

Over the last three seasons, Kershaw has posted a 188 ERA+, a statistic that normalizes performance and compares it to the league average (which is 100). [Justin] Verlander’s best season: 172. [Tim] Lincecum’s: 171. [Felix] Hernandez: 174. That means Kershaw has been better, on average, over the past three years than any one of those guys was in his very best season.

We could go on, piling stat on top of stat. You get the idea, though. Watch Kershaw do what he did Sunday, or the next time he does something similar, and you don’t even need numbers. Your eyeballs tell the tale.

Rookie skipper Dave Roberts has liked what he’s seen, via MLB.com’s Jon Cooper:

It’s incredible. Every day I get to learn him a little bit more and kind of see how he goes about his business. No one is more critical of himself than [Kershaw] is. He just kind of finds a way. He’s as competitive a person as I’ve ever seen, and he just kind of sometimes wills himself and wills the team to victories.

Insane ability. Unending drive. A blazing competitive fire. Mix those ingredients and stir, and you’ve got the recipe for a baseball-slinging superhero capable of halting any free fall.

Are the Dodgers in trouble? Just say the magic words: Clayton Kershaw to the rescue.

All statistics current as of May 1 and courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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MLB outfielders are having quite a week.

Jason Heyward of the Chicago Cubs gunned down Matt Holliday during a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks nailed the Oakland Athletics‘ Danny Valencia with a 105.5 mph frozen rope from left field Wednesday.

Not to be left out, Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers showed off his stellar arm during Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies.

During the fifth inning, Puig picked up a deep fly ball hit off the wall by Rockies shortstop Trevor Story. He proceeded to uncork a 93.5 mph rocket that traveled 310 feet and nabbed Story at third.

“As far as degree of difficulty, it might be one of the best plays I’ve ever seen,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.

The Dodgers lost 7-5, but Puig stole the show.

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Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta tossed his second career no-hitter Thursday, holding the Cincinnati Reds to just four walks in a 16-0 rout.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, victims of Arrieta’s first no-no back in 2015, reached out to the Reds via Twitter, and the ensuing interaction was hilarious:

Arrieta is 4-0 on the year with a 0.87 ERA. The Cubs, meanwhile, have scored 97 runs in 16 games.

Even if Arrieta doesn’t toss another no-no, odds are good that other teams will be in need of support after playing the Cubs.

[h/t Cut4]

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Yasiel Puig ignited millions of imaginations when he first broke into the majors in 2013. With all his speed, power and energy, surely there would come a season when he would do it all.

Three years and many twists and turns later, the early evidence suggests 2016 may finally be that season.

Early though it is, Puig is authoring the kind of performance that can’t be ignored. In his first 14 games, the Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder has put together a .347/.429/.510 slash line and has landed on highlight reels thanks to his baserunning and defense.

Say, that sounds an awful lot like a player who would loom large in the WAR room! And sure enough, Puig entered Tuesday with 0.9 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs. Among others, that tied him with reigning National League MVP Bryce Harper.

Again, it’s really early. Did I mention that it’s really early? Because it’s really early. Really. Early.

What makes Puig’s early performance so hard to ignore, though, is not just his numbers. There’s also the sense that he’s showing even 25-year-olds like himself can be “back.”

Though it’s easiest to focus on a 2013 season that earned Puig a second-place finish in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, he actually kept on superstar-ing through the first two months of 2014. Through his first 155 major league games, the Cuba native owned a .328 average, a .969 OPS, 30 home runs and 16 stolen bases.

Though Puig often lived up to his Wild Horse nickname in that span, it didn’t matter. The 6’2″, 240-pound dynamo was arguably the best all-around right fielder in the sport despite his flaws. Had he kept doing what he was doing, we would’t still be waiting for him to have his magnum opus season.

Instead, Murphy’s Law took over.

In 176 games between June of 2014 and the end of 2015, Puig hit just .264 with a .759 OPS, 16 homers and nine steals. On the field, he was undone by his poor plate discipline, his lack of proper baseball instincts and injuries that limited him to only 79 games in 2015. Off the field, Puig was a nuisance in the clubhouse who couldn’t stay out of trouble outside the clubhouse.

Still, Puig’s youth was one bright side coming into 2016. Even better, he seemed sincere about changing his ways in a February interview with Jorge Morejon of ESPN Deportes.

Judging from new Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ recent remark to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, that effort is going well:

Meanwhile, Puig also looks like a player who’s similar to his old self, but with fun, exciting new wrinkles.

The area where Puig most resembles his old self is in his plate discipline. Jay Jaffe of SI.com noted that it initially looked good, but it’s since gotten worse. Underneath Puig’s nine strikeouts and five walks are numbers that show he’s hacking, chasing and whiffing even more than usual:

Though Puig can indeed show flashes of excellent discipline, it’s clear by now that he’s a hacker by nature. Rather than hope for him to correct that, the hope should be that he’ll make the most of it.

The best way for Puig to do that is by being a good bad-ball hitter, and therein lies the good news. Per Baseball Savant, he entered Tuesday hitting pitches outside the strike zone better than ever:

• 2013: .247 AVG, .357 SLUG
• 2014: .217 AVG, .296 SLUG
• 2015: .168 AVG, .244 SLUG
• 2016: .375 AVG, .625 SLUG

Puig has earned these numbers. He entered Tuesday hitting pitches outside the zone at an average of 89.9 miles per hour, significantly better than the MLB average of roughly 84 miles per hour.

A demonstration? Sure, why not. Here’s Puig crushing a high-and-away breaking ball for a home run:

In a related story, getting the ball airborne is another thing Puig is doing well.

He tended to be more of a ground-ball hitter in his first three seasons, posting an overall ground-ball percentage of 49.5. At the start of play Tuesday, though, his ground-ball percentage was just 38.9. He’s mostly been hitting line drives and fly balls. 

This hasn’t yet equated to a ton of power, as Puig’s .163 ISO puts him below where he was last season. But that should change. Putting as many balls in the air as possible is the best way to hit for power. And with an overall average exit velocity of 92.3 miles per hour and a soft-hit rate of just 16.7, it’s not like Puig has been consistently jammed when he’s put the ball in play.

From a big-picture perspective, Puig is still far from Miguel Cabrera. But between his newfound bad-ball-hitting prowess and his elevated power potential, he could be a Vladimir Guerrero clone. That’s a comparison people (including me) were making with 2013 Puig, but it fits 2016 Puig even better.

Oh, and don’t forget about the rest of Puig’s game.

Another thing he wanted to do in 2016 was become a better baserunner. For that, he sought advice from the right guy in spring training.

“One thing I look forward to in spring training is working with Yasiel Puig,” Dodgers legend Maury Wills told Shaikin. “He asked me to work with him. Whenever a player asks you, you know that you are more than halfway there. You got him.”

The early returns are good. A guy who once ran into 14 outs on the bases in a single season has only run into one so far in 2016. Puig also has two stolen bases to go with a handful of aggressive plays, so it’s not surprising to see him rating as one of the game’s top baserunners.

It’s also not surprising to see Puig rating as one of the game’s top right fielders. He’s generally been a good defender, and he may be ready for the next step. A lighter frame following offseason weight loss may give him more range. And if he executes any more perfect relays like the one that cut down Welington Castillo last week, his infamous problems with the cutoff man could be history.

Due to assorted small sample sizes, it behooves us to stop short of saying Puig is going to do what he’s doing now all season long. Plus, there is Puig’s own history as a human roller coaster to consider. He waived his right to an automatic benefit of the doubt a long time ago.

But at the least, Puig’s strong start is worthy of optimism. It’s coming from a once-great player who’s in the thick of his prime years, and he seems to have found an all-around approach that matches his insane natural talent. He’s always been able to do it all, and right now it’s easy to see him continuing to do it all.

With Puig, there’s only one thing to do regardless: Sit down, watch and wait to see what happens.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked and are accurate prior to games played Tuesday, April 19.

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Kenta Maeda’s scoreless streak ended Sunday night.

But the high hopes Los Angeles Dodgers fans have for the Japanese right-hander should be alive and well.

After opening his big league career with 12 shutout frames spread over two starts, Maeda finally coughed up a run in the third inning Sunday against the San Francisco Giants on a solo homer by Joe Panik.

So now Maeda has an ERA. It sits at 0.47, to be exact, after he completed his seven-inning, four-hit, one-run, seven-strikeout performance against San Francisco in a 3-1 Dodgers win.

That ERA will rise as the season progresses. There will be rough outings. That’s the nature of this game, as hitters and the league inevitably adjust. 

But so far, so great for Los Angeles’ enigmatic offseason investment, who appears ready for the bright lights of Southern California—and is looking like one of the winter’s biggest bargains.

Remember, the Dodgers signed Maeda in early January to an eight-year deal worth only $25 million guaranteed dollars. It was a pact, as FanGraphs’ Eno Sarris opined at the time, “that sounds like it belongs in the early 1990s…”

Concerns over Maeda’s elbow “limited [his] market,” according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times and allowed the Dodgers to scoop him up for a relative pittance.

The deal could go as high as $106.2 million if Maeda is on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster (he was) and pitches at least 200 innings over a minimum of 32 starts every year, per Beth Harris of the Associated Press. 

That’s a high hurdle to clear. Maeda is 28, meaning he’ll be 35 in the final year of the deal. And he logged nearly 1,500 innings in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. 

If he does cash in on all or most of his incentives, he will have been an incredibly valuable pitcher. And he will have made far less than the likes of David Price and ex-Dodger Zack Greinke, each of whom commanded more than $200 million.

That’s the long view. For now, Los Angeles is trying to win a fourth straight division title and bust its 28-year championship drought.

If Maeda can keep throwing like he has, that goal becomes far more attainable. Really, all he has to do is play credible second fiddle to undisputed No. 1 Clayton Kershaw. 

With Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brett Anderson on the disabled list and left-hander Scott Kazmir sporting a 6.43 ERA, that role is especially essential.

“He never loses his poise,” pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said, per the Los Angeles Times‘ Dylan Hernandez. “I think you almost see the best of him when he’s in trouble. That shows how competitive he is and how he’s able to execute when he has to.”

That poise is one explanation for Maeda’s success. Another is his command.

Maeda averaged 1.9 walks per nine innings in Japan, and he issued just one free pass through his first two starts before surrendering three on Sunday.

He doesn’t blow hitters away with triple-digit heat. And he doesn’t feature a crazy forkball like some of his countrymen, including the New York Yankees‘ Masahiro Tanaka.

So far, however, Maeda has displayed the ability to befuddle opposing batters, hit his spots and let his defense back him up.

Oh, and he’s got some GIF-worthy moves, per MLB‘s official Twitter feed: 

There’s still uncertainty. We’re far from unraveling the Maeda mystery, or seeing clearly where his MLB career is headed, as Hernandez outlined:

He’s still feeling out his catcher, as well as opposing hitters. The same with Los Angeles traffic. As for how his 6-foot, 150-pound frame will respond to a grueling 162-game schedule, the 28-year-old right-hander from Japan can only guess.

Maeda doesn’t know how his first major league season will unfold. The Dodgers don’t, either.

But Maeda has already checked some significant items off his to-do list, including besting the Giants, Los Angeles’ bitter rival and chief NL West competition. 

If he strings together a few more dominant outings and stays healthy, he’ll slip squarely into the NL Rookie of the Year picture along with teammate Corey Seager. And he’ll help the franchise put the loss of Greinke further in its rearview.

Maeda’s scoreless streak is over. His intriguing major league tenure, on the other hand, is just getting started.

All statistics current as of April 17 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.  

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