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Imanaga allowed three hits across two scoreless innings in Tuesday's Cactus League game against the Padres. He struck out one.
Making his spring debut, Imanaga looked sharp as he logged 33 pitches. Most notably, his fastball velocity was 93 mph on average in the contest, which is up from last season's 90.8 mph average, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com reports. This supports reports coming out of camp about increased velocity for Imanaga. It remains to be seen if this is just a blip for the southpaw in a short start or something he can actually sustain throughout the year. If Imanaga can regularly throw harder, he might be able to improve upon last season's 7.3 K/9, which was down from the 9.0 K/9 he recorded during his 2024 rookie campaign.
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Cubs' Shota Imanaga: Better velocity this spring
Rotowire
Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Thursday that Imanaga has been throwing harder early this spring, Bruce Levine of 670TheScore.com reports.
Counsell didn't offer specifics on Imanaga's velocity, but he believes the left-hander wasn't throwing as hard last season because a hamstring injury caused his mechanics to get out of whack. After averaging 91.7 mph and earning a plus-4 run value by Baseball Savant with his four-seamer in 2024, Imanaga averaged 90.8 mph and netted a minus-10 run value in 2025. The southpaw accepted a one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer this offseason to return to the Cubs for 2026.
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Cubs' Shota Imanaga: Working on pitch mix in camp
Rotowire
Imanaga is working on his pitch repertoire in spring training, including tweaking his sweeper and sinker grips and adding a cutter, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com reports.
Chicago pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said the goal is to help Imanaga throw his sweeper from his "natural arm slot." With the sinker, they want to find a grip that helps the pitcher maintain velocity. Imanaga is also working to reintroduce a cutter after not throwing the pitch last season. The 32-year-old primarily used his four-seam fastball and splitter in 2025, and after a strong start to the year that resembled his stellar 2024 rookie campaign, he stumbled down the stretch to finish the regular season with a 3.73 ERA. Imanaga will aim to get back on track with his revamped pitch mix, and he makes for an intriguing fantasy option with some bounce-back appeal.
Imanaga accepted a one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer from the Cubs on Tuesday, Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reports.
The Cubs declined Imanaga's three-year, $57.75 million option earlier this month, but the left-hander will remain in Chicago after taking the team's qualifying offer. Imanaga held a 4.70 second-half ERA and 8.10 ERA in two postseason starts, but he boasts a 3.28 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 291:54 K:BB over 318 regular-season innings since the beginning of the 2024 campaign.
The Cubs extended Imanaga a one-year, $22.05 million qualifying offer on Thursday, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports.
Chicago opted to decline Imanaga's three-year, $57.75 million option earlier this week, but they'll extend the 32-year-old southpaw a qualifying offer. Imanaga could forego the qualifying offer and hit the open market, which would net the Cubs draft compensation if he signs elsewhere. After a stellar rookie campaign in 2024, Imanaga took a step back during the 2025 regular season. His ERA dropped from 2.91 to 3.73, his K/9 moved from 9.0 to 7.3 and his HR/9 went from 1.4 to 1.9.
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