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3 hours ago
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The Chicago Cubs may have overplayed their hand.
And the result is that Japanese left-handed pitcher Shota Imanaga, who has a 3.28 ERA through his first two seasons with the Cubs, is now a surprise free agent.
ESPN's Jesse Rogers broke the news on Tuesday morning, and it's a tad complicated sequence of contract dominos.
The Cubs had originally signed Imanaga to a four-year contract, of which he's through two seasons.
Built into the contract was an option for Chicago, after the second season, to decide to tack a fifth year onto the end of the deal.
The Cubs, according to Rogers, chose to reject that chance at a fifth year.
But that aspect of the contract was tied to another: If the Cubs rejected a fifth year, the 2026 season became a $15 million player option campaign for Imanaga, rather than a standard contract year. And he declined the newly created player option.
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So Imanaga is a free agent, rather than being under Cubs control for either the next two or three seasons.
He put up a 2.91 ERA with a 15-3 record in 2024.
In 2025, Imanaga had a 9-8 mark with a 3.73 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 144.2 innings pitched.
He may not be overpowering, but he's clearly a valuable member of a starting rotation. Now, if the Cubs want to keep him around, they'll have to negotiate a new contract with him.
And the rest of MLB, which surely wasn't planning on Imanaga hitting the open market, can start putting their hats into the ring, too.
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