37-Year-Old Minor Leaguer Dominates in First Start with New York Yankees Organization

Heading into play on Sunday, the New York Yankees are one of the coldest teams in baseball. New York has fallen to five games back in the American League East race and has also dropped to the third and final wild card spot, where they are only 0.5 games ahead of the surging Cleveland Guardians.

Injuries to Aaron Judge and Clarke Schmidt, recently, and Gerrit Cole earlier in the season, haven't helped New York. Nor have the struggles of closer Devin Williams.

However, might there be a solution for the Yankees awaiting in Triple-A in the form of 37-year-old Kenta Maeda?

The former Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers righty made his organizational debut on Saturday, tossing six scoreless innings. He allowed just five hits and walked none while striking out seven.

Kenta Maeda’s first start in the minors with the Yankees:

6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO, 91 P pic.twitter.com/1y9UtEhSUd
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 10, 2025

He threw 91 pitches in the outing, and could potentially be an option for the rotation over the final six weeks of the season.

A nine-year veteran, Maeda is 68-56 lifetime with a 4.20 ERA. He was 0-0 with an ERA of 7.88 this season with the Tigers before being let go. He has three seasons of double-digit wins, including a career-high 16 in 2016. He finished second in the American League Cy Young voting during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

At the big-league level, the Yankees are back in action on Sunday afternoon against the Houston Astros.

First pitch from Yankee Stadium is set for 1:35 p.m. ET as Max Fried takes the mound for New York.

He's 12-4 with a 2.78 ERA.

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