Shota Imanaga will be returning to the Cubs, as The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney reports that the left-hander has accepted the team’s one-year, $22.025MM qualifying offer. The surprising decision means that Imanaga stays put after his time in Wrigleyville seemed to be over, following a series of declined contract options on the part of the Cubs and Imanaga himself.
The four-year, $53MM deal that Imanaga signed with Chicago in January 2024 guaranteed Imanaga $23MM over the first two seasons, and this offseason presented both sides with decisions. The Cubs had to decide whether or not to exercise a three-year option on Imanaga’s services that would’ve paid him $57MM over the 2026-28 seasons, and the team decided to decline. Imanaga then had a $15MM player option for just 2026 that he also declined. The Cubs issued Imanaga the qualifying offer to ensure some compensation if Imanaga signed elsewhere, yet as it turned out, Imanaga will indeed take a one-year pact to remain, with an extra $7.025MM added beyond the price of his player option.
Assuming a contract extension isn’t worked out within the next year, Imanaga can re-enter next year’s free agent market without the QO compensation attached to his services. This removes one obstacle for Imanaga in landing another pricey long-term contract, but a more consistent 2026 campaign will be the deciding factor.
Imanaga posted a 3.73 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate, and an elite 4.6% walk rate over 144 2/3 innings for Chicago this season. Apart from his great control and the solid bottom-line ERA, the rest of Imanaga’s peripherals were almost all well below the league average. The problems included a lot of hard and high-impact contact, as only three pitchers allowed more home runs than Imanaga’s 31 big flies in 2025.
More to come…
