MESA, Ariz. — Shota Imanaga‘s rookie season could not have played out much better than how he pitched for the Chicago Cubs.
The left-hander, in his age 30 season, was named to the National League All-Star team en route to finishing fourth for NL Rookie of the Year and fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting.
“He’s passed and excelled at really every challenge that’s been put in front of him,” manager Craig Counsell said Monday. “That’s what he did last year — the nature of competitive sports is you’ve got to go do it again. And he looks forward to that, as all these guys do.”
Imanaga, though, isn’t satisfied with his 2024 performance. He says he didn’t exceed his expectations and instead evaluated his numbers after the season. Imanaga cited his 3.0 fWAR as only slightly better than Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s (2.8) despite throwing 83 more innings than his countryman. He also pointed out Paul Skenes’ “incredible” WAR (4.3) after the right-hander threw 133 innings during his rookie season for Pittsburgh.
“For me, and looking back, I just need to figure out, OK, I need to have give up less home runs, I need to get my strikeout numbers higher,” Imanaga said Monday through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “That means quality of the starts are going to be better. So I think looking at all those, I figured out, OK, this is what I need to work on for the next season.”
As Imanaga focuses on honing those areas, he already knows when he will make his first start of the regular season — roughly five weeks from now against the Dodgers in his home country during the Tokyo Series. Counsell pointed out the obvious assignment when pitchers and catchers reported to camp Sunday, quipping, “Shota’s going to pitch in Japan, I think that’s mandated, kind of. I don’t think I have a choice, actually.”
Imanaga spent the offseason in Japan but sent videos of what he was working on to pitching coach Tommy Hottovy to keep the Cubs looped in. Hottovy praised Imanaga’s communication, though the time difference often meant Hottovy’s evening texts would result in waking up at 6 a.m. to a response because of the 17-hour time difference. As a student of the game, Imanaga is always looking for even small ways to get better and not always in the traditional sense, Hottovy said.
Imanaga wants to improve at controlling the running game, picking off more base runners and limiting extra bases.
“All those little things that don’t really show up in WAR equate to wins for the team and he’s continuing to find ways to improve, to get better,” Hottovy said. “But what’s really encouraging was Shota coming in after everything we went through in spring training to onboard him. He came in, like, I’m going to get my strength dialed in. I’m going to do what I know makes me successful and then we’re going to build off that, and that’s so refreshing to have a guy who’s had success and also wants to continue to get better, but knows what his foundation is and what’s going to make him successful.”
While the Cubs need Imanaga, left-hander Justin Steele and right-hander Jameson Taillon to repeat or even surpass last year’s success, depth will again likely play an important role as pitchers who accounted for 81% of their starts in 2024 are back this season.
Two days into camp, the Cubs are already navigating injury issues. Right-hander Javier Assad underwent imaging Monday on his left oblique after experiencing soreness following a workout on a bullpen day. Because he didn’t experience acute discomfort on a pitch, Assad’s situation gives Hottovy “a little more room for optimism.” The Cubs want Assad to be ready for the long haul of the season and won’t rush him to be ready for the two games against the Dodgers in Tokyo.
Pitching prospect Brandon Birdsell is also shut down as the Cubs try to identify his back shoulder/lat discomfort. Birdsell, a nonroster invitee, reached Triple A for the first time in his career last season and is expected to provide starting depth.
“The goal for a guy like Brandon Birdsell, we know what he could do for the future of this organization is to get him in camp and get him around players and just get to know what the workload looks like and what a routine looks like,” Hottovy said. “So even though he’s going to be down for a little bit, it’s not going to stop what I think he’s going to be able to accomplish being around the guys.
“We just need to make sure that we’re handling this right, get him in a good place and then kind of build from there.”
