Watching Detroit Tigers' Kenta Maeda is wild — both him and the hysteria that follows him

LAKELAND, Fla. — Word was starting to spread.

Kenta Maeda was getting ready to warm up, and the rush was on. Members of the Japanese media hustled between fields at TigerTown on Wednesday afternoon, jockeying for space, trying to find the perfect spot to cover this new Detroit Tigers pitcher from Japan.

As Maeda walked to a warm-up mound, his personal Japanese media contingent settled in. No fewer than four TV cameras focused on him, recording his every move.

Remember, this was just a live bullpen on the backfields.

“He's a veteran guy,” said Junko Ichimura, who was in Lakeland to cover the event for a newspaper in Japan. “He’s so successful and respected. He has a lot of expectation for this team as a veteran guy, so it's going to be interesting season for us to cover. Many of us try to cover (Shohei) Otani now, but we still want to cover those important topics like Kenta.”

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“How many members of the media from Japan follow around Ohtani?” I asked.

“I would say 50 or more,” she said.

I counted 10 members of the Japanese media on hand to watch Maeda throw on Wednesday.

So, it’s not exactly Ohtani level.

But it’s definitely something new for the Tigers. Suddenly, this team is getting a new level of international attention, and it changed everything from the vibe around the fields, to A.J. Hinch’s pregame media session which was dominated by questions about Maeda, to the post-practice swarm of Japanese media interviewing Jake Rogers, who had caught the bullpen; and then the giant swarm of media that interviewed Maeda about how he pitched.

“I'm thankful,” Maeda said through his interpreter, Daichi Sekizaki. “I don't know if I should say I'm used to it, but I'm just thankful that you guys are surrounding me asking questions."

Two years removed from Tommy John surgery, Maeda gives the Tigers a talented, experienced pitcher. He was second in American League Cy Young voting in 2020 with the Minnesota Twins.

But Maeda also offers a wealth of knowledge for this young pitching staff.

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“I think it's just trying to grab a portion of a veteran players routine or regimen that might help them,” Hinch said. “For Casey (Mize), it might be a split grip. You know, for others, it might be his routine before he pitches or after. I hope for all of them, that it will be his strike-throwing. He's not going to hold a pitching clinic. He's not going to stand in front and tell everybody how to do it. He's just going to be a good part of a rotation and hopefully that leads to each of our guys taking a little something from him.”

Circus comes to town

Maeda's media circus was entertaining and unusual for TigerTown.

But more importantly, his stuff was impressive. He threw 20 pitches, five each to Colt Keith, Javy Báez, Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene.

Only one pitch was bad, according to Rogers.

“I'm not quite 100% yet, it's so early, but I think everything went very well,” Maeda said. “I think everything has been off to a great start.”

Báez had the most success against Maeda. He banged a fastball off the right field fence.

“I'm not surprised,” Maeda said. “Javy is a great hitter. Whenever I face him, I really have to be careful about my pitches. I'm not surprised that he hit that one. If it's in a real game, I wouldn't throw fastball there.”

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Rogers took the blame.

“He got himself a heater and hit it,” Rogers said. “It was up and away. Yeah, it was a good piece of hitting, right where I called it. So can't hate that, my fault.”

Even though Maeda has extensive experience — he started pitching professionally in Japan when he was 20 and has pitched for the last seven years in the major leagues — he is still trying to improve.

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“He's in a good place,” Hinch said. “He's still, at his age and his experience level and his success level, trying to tweak a thing or two, whether it's a pitch usage or whether it's adding a little wrinkle to his pitch, how can he make his slider a little bit better.”

Hinch had a funny conversation with Maeda.

Hinch thought Maeda might be able to steal some strikes by throwing first-pitch curves.

“Then he reminded me he tried that with (Spencer) Torkelson and it went in the upper deck,” Hinch said. “So, he's very, very aware of where he's at. He's also very aware of little subtle things he needs to do to continue to be successful.”

During the outing, Rogers gave out three “attaboys,” a “very nice,” and, well, something else.

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After one pitch, Rogers said something that sounded like “eeen-yahh!” Roughly translated, it means good job in Japanese.

“I'm learning one or two words a day in Japanese school, so I'm trying to try to learn a little bit,” Rogers said.

Several players and coaches are trying to learn Japaneese, which has only made Maeda feel more comfortable.

“At this pace, I think the mound visits are going to be in Japanese,” Maeda joked.

Even through an interpreter, he’s got a wonderful, light-hearted, engaging personality.

“He looks happy,” Hinch said. “You know, he looks like he's settling in. I think I've said his name in every morning meeting to include him and poke fun at him a little bit. Great personality."

After he was done pitching, Maeda started walking back toward the facility. He was circled by his translator and massage therapist — it's like he has his own posse.

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Again, I can’t stress this enough: this was after a simple bullpen.

The Japanese media started following him, and then they were held back.

Maeda looked like a rock star; following him should be interesting in every way this season. With people from all over the world keeping close tabs.

Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.

To read Seidel's recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

For (spring) openers: Yankees

Matchup: Tigers (78-84 in 2023) vs. N.Y. Yankees (82-80), Grapefruit League opener.

First pitch: 1:05 p.m. Saturday; Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland, Florida.

TV/radio: None.

Opening Day: At Chicago White Sox; 4:10 p.m. March 28; Bally Sports Detroit.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Kenta Maeda provides key arm and a crazy media circus