MLB: Three new additions who will quietly impact 2020 playoff race

These three players will quietly go about helping their new teams make a run in the 2020 MLB season.

It seems like it has been years since the Boston Red Sox traded away Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers or since Gerrit Cole signed his $324 million deal with the New York Yankees, but these prominent MLB moves were a product of just this past offseason.

Months of quarantine and adjusting to a new way of life have really played a number on the ability to understand time.

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However, it is just about time for Opening Day across baseball, with a number of players preparing to take the field for the first time with their new team.

Which of these players will help their team the most in 2020? Let’s look past the obvious game-changers like Betts, Cole, Anthony Rendon (Los Angeles Angels), and Madison Bumgarner (Arizona Diamondbacks) and look at three players who have switched jerseys and will quietly go about helping their team make a deep run in the 2020 MLB playoffs.

Kenta Maeda is a fantastic pickup for the Minnesota Twins.

How does a 101 win team that hit 307 home runs last season get better? They sign Josh Donaldson and trade for Kenta Maeda, two players who combined for a 7.9 fWAR in 2019.

While Josh Donaldson provides yet another powerful bat in the middle of Minnesota’s lineup, Maeda is a veteran pitcher who the Twins can slot in behind Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi in their rotation and let him do what he does best, quiet down loud bats.

On the surface, Maeda’s numbers look fairly pedestrian as the 32-year-old went 10-8 with a 4.04 ERA with the Dodgers in 2019, all while being shuffled between the starting rotation and bullpen. But a deeper look into the numbers shows a pretty effective pitcher who every team would probably love to have at the back end of their rotations.

Per Baseball Savant, Maeda ranked in the 96th percentile in average exit velocity (85.4 mph), 95th percentile in hard-hit percentage (28.8%) and his expected ERA (3.26) was nearly a full run lower than his actual ERA.

Maeda is effective at avoiding barrels and producing weak contact, something that will come in handy while navigating through powerful lineups in the American League. He also ranked near the top of the league in overall whiff rate, with his slider (40.7%) and changeup (36.2%) leading the way in swings and misses.

Maeda’s fastball isn’t as lethal of a pitch, but he was able to add some velocity to the pitch late in 2019 which saw a big spike in effectiveness, including a noticeable uptick in whiffs and a .100 batting average against during the month of September.

With two All-Star pitchers in Berrios and Odorizzi leading the way and veteran pickups in Rich Hill and Homer Bailey also expected to provide quality starts, Maeda can quietly go about his job, hidden in the rotation behind much bigger names.

When playoff time comes back around and the Twins are facing the Yankees once again, they now have Maeda to use out of the bullpen, if they wish. Maeda is a quality weapon and he could help provide just enough of a boost to help get Minnesota to the next level.