Well, I understand it. Someone has to replace Kenley Jansen soon when he goes from questionable to useless.
They did have Maeda at a reasonable price for 4 more years, though, and it was an incentive-heavy deal, so that also helped the club. When they signed him, the concern was his injury history, but he averaged about 150 IP per year with the club. He also pitched over 120 IP each of the 4 years. So while he wasn't injury-free, he was healthy most of the time each year. Pleasant surprise.
Guy was solid and clutch, and as you said, didn't even get pissed about the bullpen move. Loved him in the playoffs, and in fact he was underutilized. They'd drop him into tough spots in relief in the postseason, and he would just bear down and get outs.
So far the Dodgers are the best team in the regular season, but is that really a surprise?
We'll see if the offense can mask some of the pitching question marks when the postseason comes. If Bellinger and Muncy get going (they really need to put Muncy on the DL and let him heal), then the offense is really going to punish people.