Reports: Kenta Maeda and Hiroki Kuroda to pitch in Japan

Two of baseball's top remaining free agents have reportedly reached agreements to pitch in Japan next season.

Kenta Maeda, a 26-year-old right-hander who was expected to command north of $100 million if made available to MLB teams this winter, has reportedly agreed to a one-year contract with the Hiroshima Carp after they refused to post him last week. He'll be joined by 39-year-old right-hander Hiroki Kuroda, who reportedly agreed to a deal with Hiroshima on Friday.

In the case of Maeda, he's somewhat of an unknown commodity since he's yet to pitch in MLB. He's drawn comparisons to Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka, which are natural but perhaps a little aggressive. As Yahoo's Jeff Passan recently noted, Maeda doesn't possess the same power arm as his predecessors with a fastball that sits low 90s. He's more reliant on breaking pitches, which have proven effective for him in Japan. But there seems to be concern that he lacks a true out-pitch like Tanaka and Koji Uehara's split-fingered fastball, which could push him to a mid-rotation slot.

Of course, that's not Maeda's concern. He's just looking forward to the challenge of pitching in MLB someday.

According to the Japan Times report, Maeda is not eligible for unlimited free agency until after the 2017 season, so it's possible his MLB debut is still three years away.

As for Kuroda, he spent seven seasons in MLB pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees and never once posted an ERA above 3.76. Overall, Kuroda was 79-79 with a 3.45 ERA in 212 MLB appearances. Despite a slow start last season, he recovered to finish 11-9 with a 3.71 ERA in 32 starts, further cementing his consistency and reliability.

Based on his upside and youth, Maeda ranked 14th on Jeff Passan's Ultimate Free-Agent Tracker to begin the offseason. Kuroda came in one spot behind at 15. They were the third and fourth best available free agents remaining behind fellow starting pitchers Max Scherzer and James Shields, so the demand for those two right-handers could actually increase now that two fall-back options are off the board.

According to Passan, the next best available starters are Aaron Harang and Ryan Vogelsong. With trade chips like Jeff Samardzijla and Mat Latos already off the board as well, the pickings are getting slim in a hurry.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813