Kenta Maeda is a baseball player who is in a class of his own. The Japanese pitcher plays in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Previously, he played for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in his home country, where he not only achieved a lot but also set a number of records. Since joining the MLB in 2016, he has become an important part of the Dodgers team.
Kenta Maeda Biography
Kenta Maeda was born on April 11, 1988, in Takaoka, Osaka, Japan. Since not much is known about his upbringing or his family, his life and history have been dominated by baseball, which he started playing as a child.
When he came to high school, Kenta Maeda was already an excellent player. He played for PL Gakuen High School, which is very popular at the annual summer Koshien tournament. From there he was drafted into the 2006 NPB Draft by Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
Before being called up to the top Japanese league, the pitcher spent the 2007 season playing for the secondary carp team. In 2008 he received the call to play for the main team. His best year in the league was to be 2010 when he played his first NPB All-Star game, before completing four more. He also won his first Best Nine Award (before winning two more), his first of five Golden Gloves Awards, and the first of two Eiji Sawamura Awards.
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In addition, when he took home the Sawamura Award, he became the youngest pitcher to win the Triple Crown in the history of Japanese baseball.
MLB Career
In 2015, the Carp decided to use the posting system and provide Kenta Maeda for Major League Baseball. He was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers who offered him a 25 million deal that would keep him on the team for the next 8 years.
The deal also includes incentives of up to $10 million per year, with everything in excess of $90 million. The Hiroshima Carp in turn received $20 million from the deal as a sending fee.
Maeda made his MLB debut in a game where the Dodgers got the better side of the San Diego Padres in Petco Park. At the end of his first year, he finished third after Corey Seager and Trea Turner in the National League Rookie of the Year Award. He also had a good 2017 season, although it didn’t go as well as it could have after the Dodgers lost the 2017 World Series to the Houston Astros in seven games.
In addition to his activities in the NPB and MLB, the pitcher has also played for the Japanese baseball team. He was part of the team that won the bronze medal at the 2015 WBSC Premier12 international baseball championship.
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Kenta Maeda Wife and Family
Since not so much is known about his upbringing or his family, it is known that Kenta Maeda is a married man. The Dodgers’ husband married Saho Narushima in 2012. At that time Kenta was still in the NPB while Narushima was working as a TV personality.
According to reports, the couple first met through a mutual friend who introduced them sometime in 2010, and soon after that, they began to meet. They became engaged in 2011, and the following year they became husband and wife after signing the Covenant of Life in Hiroshima.
Saho Narushima is not only a TV presenter but also loves cooking, as evidenced by her contributions to her social media. In 2015 she published a cookbook.
The family had lived in Japan before she finally moved to the United States. The couple has two children, a daughter and a son born in 2018.
Kenta Maeda Height, Weight, Measurements
As a good-looking man, Kenta Maeda also has a good height and build. Numerically he stands on a massive height of 185 cm (6 feet 1 inch) and has a body weight of 79 kg (175 lb). The general body measurements of the right-hander were not given, but it is obvious that he has good measurements.
