The puzzled looks on hitters’ faces as they return to the dugout tell the story of Shota Imanaga’s first two months in the majors. The 30-year-old left-hander for the Chicago Cubs has taken the mound nine times against nine different opponents, and none of them have been able to figure him out.
After signing a four-year, $53 million contract this offseason, Imanaga has stymied baseball’s best hitters on his way to an MLB-best 0.84 ERA. But the most frustrating part for hitters is that Imanaga’s stuff seems very hittable… until it isn’t.
“Man, I don’t know,” San Diego Padres infielder Xander Bogaerts said after his team lost to the Cubs with Imanaga on the mound. “I thought we were going to fix it.”
At just 5-foot-10, Imanaga isn’t particularly intimidating on the mound, and he doesn’t throw very hard (a fastball that hits around 92 mph), but there’s something about his delivery and release point that makes the opposition It seems stupid.
While that fastball is vulgar in an era of high-velocity aces, the pitch movement coming from his deceptive pitch is giving opponents fits, with a batting average of .164. Braves bench coach Walt Weiss called it an “optical illusion,” and Atlanta hitters agreed after Imanaga held them scoreless for five innings earlier this month.
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“His fastball plays well, so every time you try to attack him, you foul him,” Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies said. “Most players’ swing is to lift the ball and if he has that little bit of travel, you foul him or you swing and miss. That’s what’s great for him.”
Added Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson: “He hides the ball very well. He plays harder than the radar says. And he has a very good handle on his fastball. It comes from behind his head.”
What has made Imanaga even harder to understand is the pitch he pairs with that rising four-seam: an 83 mph splitter that falls in the opposite direction.
“This guy is going to give hitting coaches nightmares,” Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton said after his team lost 1-0 to Imanaga. “The fastball isn’t 94-95, but it’s effective. The splitter looks like a strike. Even the splits he throws in the zone that are strikes have a lot of action. And there’s a lot of deception in the delivery.”
The scariest part for opposing teams might be that Imanaga hasn’t even used his entire arsenal yet. He possesses a slider and a curveball that will likely explode once he faces a team for the second time. Before taking the mound against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday (his 10th different opponent) he was asked if he was surprised by his early-season success.
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“I’m more surprised than anyone in Japan,” he said through the team interpreter. “I’m very surprised.”
There was reason to believe Imanaga’s magic could work against MLB’s best lineups: He did something similar with Team Japan during the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Pitching on the same roster as Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, it was Imanaga who started against the United States in the championship game.
While navigating the top of a lineup featuring Mookie Betts, Mike Trout and Paul Goldschmidt, a Team USA star said something in the dugout that was sure to resonate with any hitter who stepped in ready to tee off against Imanaga alone. to return wondering. What went wrong after the at-bat:
“That guy’s not very good, but he’s unbeatable.”
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The Cubs can thank Imanaga’s agents in the Octagon for the MLB’s best free agent addition so far this season and ultimately chose Chicago, both for negotiation and simple geography.
When Imanaga arrived from Japan last October, he decided to spend the offseason near his agents, who are based in Chicago.
Imanaga remained away from the city, in a suburb west of Wrigley Field, for several months as he waited for his free agency to heat up, as it finally did after his WBC teammate Yamamoto signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in late from December.
The Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros were among Imanaga’s suitors. The San Francisco Giants also showed interest, but Imanaga’s preference evolved as he listened to teams via Zoom calls during their negotiating window that opened in late November.
“He came in with one goal: to match up with the team that could make him better,” said one of his agents, Lou Jon Nero. “At the end of the day, everything started to sound the same.”
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As contract offers started coming in, it became clear that the most important factor would be where Imanaga would feel most comfortable. The Cubs showed they could be that team, in part because they got to work from the start: President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer flew to Japan in September to see Imanaga pitch in person. He calls Imanaga a ‘data’ success story and his in-person view of him matches what the team expected to see on the mound.
“You’re not going there blindly,” Hoyer said. “All of our pitch data on his fastball was really good.”
Those months spent exploring the Chicago area also played a role. Imanaga found a Japanese market he liked and took Ubers to a local shopping center. He acted more like a tourist than someone hoping to become a millionaire in Major League Baseball.
“I came here and they were playing football,” he said of a Northwestern/Iowa college game held at Wrigley Field in November. “I saw that home plate was covered. And they said the scoreboard was very old. I liked it.”
Once Imanaga’s agents expressed serious interest in the Cubs, the Chicago front office offered him a four-year contract that included a team option for a fifth year, which would bring the total package to $80 million. If Imanaga can continue to stump hitters like he has in his first two months, picking up that fifth year becomes a no-brainer.
“I had other options, but I like the Cubs,” Imanaga said of his new home. “I love it here. The fans have been so supportive. I’m grateful to be a Cub.”
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