It’s no secret that the Dodgers have had every intention of having Japanese right-hander Kenta Maeda return to the Dodgers starting rotation as their one and. to this point, only righty in their left-hand-dominant rotation for the 2018 season for quite some time now. In fact, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts even said so on the very day that pitchers and catchers reported for spring training on February 13.

“If you look at the roster, I think that after the last few years, there’s been more starting pitching depth as far as established major league starting pitchers in the potential rotation,” Roberts said. “But you look at Clayton [Kershaw], Alex Wood, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, and Hyun-Jin Ryu.

“And then outside of that you’ve got [Julio] Urias coming back at some point, you’ve got Walker Buehler in the mix, and [Ross] Stripling, and [Brock] Stewart,” Roberts added. “So there’s guys – and guys are going to be competing – but right now I like our pitching.”

Now this certainly isn’t to say that Stripling, Stewart or even even the Dodgers 2015 first-rounder Buehler don’t have a shot at breaking camp as a member of the Dodgers starting rotation, or that they aren’t being (very) closely monitored by Roberts, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi, it’s just that as things stand right now, and (Heaven forbid) baring an injury or early season struggles to one of the aforementioned Dodgers southpaws, the Opening Day starting rotation appears to be set.

If all goes as planned, and judging by his first official spring training outing on Tuesday afternoon against the Texas Ranger at Camelback Ranch, the popular 29-year-old Senboku-gun, Japan native will indeed be in the Dodgers Opening Day starting rotation on March 29, although exactly where in that rotation he will land has yet to be determined.

Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and new bullpen coach Mark Prior look on as Maeda throws his first bullpen session of the spring. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Interestingly enough, the 6′-1″ / 175-pound Maeda told reporters after his scoreless and hitless two innings on Tuesday that it was his time in the Dodgers bullpen late in the 2017 regular season (four relief appearances) and postseason (nine appearances) that both upped his game and his motivation to return as a starter in 2018.

“The biggest part was just kind of get back into the groove of pitching in a game situation and also be able to throw all of my pitches,” Maeda told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo, after his 12-pitch / 7-strike perfect two innings on Tuesday. “I’m just remembering back my routine, my rhythm of the game, and also being able to have the finer control pitching against these major league hitters.”

As most Dodger fans know, much of Maeda’s success as a reliever had to do with a change in his aggressiveness when facing hitters, usually late in games. How does he plan to bring what he learned as a reliever from the likes of star closer Kenley Jansen and former Dodgers bullpen coach Josh Bard into his return role as a starter?

“Definitely bring in the experience that I had in the postseason and the World Series into my starts,” Maeda said, through his interpreter Will Ireton. “I’m sure there’s going to be certain times when I’m going to have to kind of handle that being a reliever during my starts.”

Asked how he was going to handle the new MLB rule changes regarding the number of mound visits with regards to communicating with his catcher, the popular right-hander – and his equally popular interpreter – got a laugh out of Rizzo.

“Learning English is probably a big step,” he answered with a chuckle.

As often happens, Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda usually draws a laugh from reporters through his interpreter Will Ireton during his interviews. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

For as much fun as “Will the Thrill” and Maeda have in the Dodgers clubhouse – usually at Ireton’s expense, there are probably quite a few of Maeda’s teammates, not to mention a lot of Dodgers beat writers, that are hoping that this doesn’t happen any time soon.

…new MLB rules be damned.