In the wake of the Dodgers signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Japans best Starting Pitcher on the market, the Chicago Cubs swooped in and signed Shota Imanaga, Japans reported next best Starting Pitcher to come onto the market. The contract was for a mere $53M and 4 years (about the same price as what Yamamoto was getting for his signing bonus of $50M), with mutual options in year 3 and 4, and a club option for a 5th year at $17M for a possible total of $80M.
This was the Cubs first big move in the off-season, before the Bellinger signing, and Michael Busch/Yency Almonte trade that have shaped the Cubs as they sit today, just a game and a half out of first place behind the Brewers. And that’s probably in big part thanks to Imanaga. The Cubbies have won every game Shota has started by his last (May 13th) as of writing, although he only threw 5 Innings and gave up no Runs, lowering his ERA to a Major League leading 0.96 over 8 Starts.
Over the first quarter of the season, Shota Imanaga has already added the 2024 March/April NL Rookie of the Month award to his name, a 5-0 record with the 0.96ERA and 51K over 46.2 Innings. He would be closer to 50 Innings if rain hadn’t shortened his April 7th start to just 4 Innings against the Dodgers, which the Cubs won but he wasn’t eligible for the Win for his record. While on the West Coast, Yamamoto has a more realistic 4-1 record with a 3.21ERA, and the odds of Imanaga keeping up his pace being a 30-year old Rookie are unlikely, the Cubs have certainly won out in the short-term and put themselves in a good position to be in the Playoffs later this year, Imanaga brings more than just a great arm to Chicago.
Shota has the already connected with fans through custom shirts, witty one-liners, and his Ace-like pitching. After a bunch of former and current High Schoolers went to a Wrigley Field game that had Shota starting, shirtless no less and “S-H-O-T-A-!” painted on their chests in support for the new player in only his THIRD start ever in the U.S., Imanaga tossed up a ball to the teens and later on worked with the company that prints shirts for the Cubs to make a set of customized shirts for the half-dozen kids so they could continue to root him on and not be freezing in the Chicago weather.
With three Starts in May already to the tune of a 1-0 record and 0.95ERA, and most likely two more Starts left, you’ll probably be hearing some All-Star talk for Shota if he keeps it up. And more importantly so for him as an individual player, NL Rookie of the Year talk? And dare I say, NL Cy Young Award? The latter two, we’ll have to see in a couple of month, but I don’t think it’s too early to start talking about “Shota for 2024 ASG!” shirts to be printed.
