Shota Imanaga will sign with the Chicago Cubs: Japanese pitcher joins Chicago on four-year, $53 million deal with options.
Following the first two years, the Cubs have the option to extend the contract to $80 million over five years. If they do not agree after the second or third year of the contract, Imanaga can opt out and become a free agent.
Imanaga joins MLB after eight years in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, the world’s second-best circuit. In those eight seasons, he had a 2.96 ERA, a 3.93 K/BB ratio, and more over one strikeout per inning. He did, however, allow a surprisingly high number of home runs by league norms, raising worries about his ability to control power in the MLB.
CBS Sports listed Imanaga as the No. 42 free agent available in the summer. More recently, CBS Sports highlighted what makes Imanaga an intriguing potential mid-rotation starter.Here’s some of that writing:
Imanaga’s heater, however, has remained his primary offering because to the pitch’s inherent “rising” movement. He’ll be well at home in MLB, where teams have been gravitating to pitchers with elevated fastballs in recent years.
When Imanaga wants to adjust the speed, he frequently goes to a low-80s slider that had over 40% whiffs last season. For comparison, that % would have rated him in the top 10 among left-handed starters who threw at least 100 sliders throughout the 2023 campaign, ahead of Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw, among other successful veterans.
The Cubs will owe a significant posting fee to Imanaga’s old team, the Yokohama BayStars, as part of the system in place for Japanese pros entering MLB.
Imanaga will start his 30th season in 2024. The Cubs will add him to a rotation that features Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks, and Jameson Taillon.Our Mike Axisa has written on what the Cubs should (or must) do next following this deal.