Chicago Cubs don’t sign Tatsuya Imai | Could they pivot to Zac Gallen?

Matt discusses the Cubs not signing Tatsuya Imai and why that may have happened. Plus: Zac Gallen could be the main pivot plan, other possible additions, and more.

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33 comments

  1. Gallen is not the answer we have many backend 4-5 starters . Cubs will be selling at the trade deadline when they are under 500 and do a full blow up again . Bargain bing and and dollar store players no one wants when you have e a window to win it is their philosophy. When your window is open you spend you go for it you get the free agent not looking at bargain bin and flea market to fill the roster .

  3. Why are they not trading for a high level Starter? Jed is so goddamn obsessed with stashing farm talent, that they lose their value…waste! Trade 1-2 of Ballesteros/Rojas/Caissie/Alcantara/Long, NOW!
    Obviously they're going to keep Caissie, because they aren't signing Tucker.
    Can't trade Wiggins, as he's you're only top shelf Pitcher anywhere close to Majors.

  6. Matt: I can't speak for all Cubs fans that are honked off; just offer up my current position.
    I'm not so much pissy just because of Imai, but rather how this fits with the consistant, repeated pattern of behavior with this ownership/front office. They're always cheapskating the fans (and city of Chicago); all the while ramping up prices, cutting corners, and basically acting like the smallest of small market teams. They are creating all these other revenue streams, but then they flat refuse to spent the money to go get decent players to fill out the roster.

    I don't live in Chicago, so my situation is a little different. But for me to drive to a game, pay for parking, tickets, food, snacks & drinks: I'm easily looking at $100 per person. So, I don't go to many games. But people living there in Chicago do; a lot.
    Ricketts is raking in the cash; so I don't buy his pathetic "Poor little me" routine that he tries to pass off each offseason, excusing away his lack of spending on the team. Again: it's MLB–run the damn team right or GTFO.

    And the front office only has themselves to blame for not having much on the books for '27 and beyond. If they hadn't penny-pinched in 24 & 25, then they would probably have controllable pitching for 27 and beyond. If you refuse to spend the money, then you won't have the players. It's a major league baseball team: It's not rocket science. There aren't any guarantees, and non should be reasonably expected. Shit happens, sometimes players just don't work out. Deal with it, and move on.

  11. Stupid question how much in taxes is Chicago’s insane local state government making the Cubs pay? I know that doesn’t affect the payroll, but y’all think the owners might be less likely to spend more money than they really have too? Because all these blue states are losing massively huge companies because of their local taxes. Crap just look how Chicago is treating the Bears. Just asking what y’all think?

  12. We're never going to win another one under Tom ricketts and tbh this why I don't want to wait on these Japanese players decisions anymore while other good pitchers or players here in this country already sign somewhere else we could have grabbed while waiting. We did this last year with roki when we all knew where his mind was going to. And we failed again. I'm not going to wait anymore for these Japanese players decisions regardless how good they are while the other good free agents sign somewhere else by the time they make their decision. Therefore we failed this off-season now starting pitcher wise.

    The moment Michael king signed and suarez signed I was pissed and told to be patient because imai was going to sign here. Look how that turned out.

  14. I can't be at Cubs Con. For those of you who will be, please stand up for our fanbase. Please boo Ricketts, Hoyer, and Hawkins. I'm not talking about scattered boos. Please boo those disgraceful cowards off the stage.

  17. We all knew there was a small chance of them signing Imai. Not a surprise. Hard no on gallen. Trade some prospects that this org cannot develop into big leaguers. Only 2-3 I believe worth keeping is ballesteros, Rojas, Wiggins. Wiggins because he the only arm that looks anything close to mlb

  21. Are you being honest Matt? Do you believe that Drew would be your choice over Imai in the 5th game in the playoffs?
    Who cares about next f'ing year? STOP with all the hypothetical reasons.
    Now we are going to trade for a starter which means we give away young talent for overpriced veterans or over pay for younger trade candidates?
    Why develop rookies if you do not want to play them.
    I am done with this show!

  23. Imai not be good, the Cubs didn't think he was or they would have given a more serious offer, but I really don't understand the point you're trying to make about how somehow this Imai signing wouldn't have made sense for the Cubs because he could opt out after one year. If he opts out it's because he's pitching well and the Cubs would take that every time. You also mention trading for someone with more control but I don't think you thought that one through. Sure you might get another year of control but you'd be giving way like 12 years of control with Caissie/Wiggins/whoever. That doesn't help roster turnover at all. If they're not going to improve the team by signing top free agents then trading players is the last thing they should do.

    Of course the Cubs not signing Imai doesn't mean they "lost the off season", but you don't understand why Cubs fans and other "cubs podcasters" are upset they didn't sign Imai? It's not just Imai, think of all the players the Cubs have been officially linked too that they didn't sign because they thought the prices, either cash or prospects, was too high.

    Dylan Cease
    Michael King
    Tatsuya Imai
    Max Fried
    Alex Bregman (soon to be x2)
    Devin Williams
    Jesus Luzardo
    Matt Chapman

    You said it yourself they're currently an 82 win team. Fans want the team to be better. Fans know Tom Ricketts and the Ricketts family have no desire to seriously compete for a World Series.

    btw this smug self-assured shtick about not understanding why fans are upset is so off putting. Fans want their team to improve, so far in the off season, it's only improved marginally. Put on your big boy pants and think

  25. 8:07 the roster is full of future free agents, but they still don’t wanna sign no one to more than one year they don’t call up the kids… wtf are they doing

  26. What a complete joke of an episode! Didn’t know you guys work for biased Marquee network. You cannot and I repeat can absolutely NOT go on here and say “ahh it’s not a big deal we didn’t sign Imai” when you guys almost more than anyone filmed multiple episodes saying how important Imai is to this Chicago Cubs team! Absolutely unacceptable and embarrassing!

  28. Cubs offered a 4 year incentive laden deal that could have paid him more had he reached the incentive points, but the base aav was 14mil. Besides that, he said early on that he wanted to play on team that didn't already have Japanese players. He wanted to be the dude.

  31. I’m not too upset about this just because Imai is completely unproven in the league. Trying to withhold my judgement until the season begins but the lack of moves and effort doesn’t inspire confidence.

  32. Oh my goodness, Matt Matt, Matt, my friend it doesn’t matter who’s available we can spit out all the names that are left. It’s not happening. The Cubs are not signing top of class free agents so you’re looking at Zak gallen, You’re looking at secondary pitchers or third best pitchers avail at their position. the Cubs rarely ever make a splash for the number one choice. Can it happen maybe but history has not shown that as of yet and that is very worrisome going into 2027.

  33. Matt, I absolutely agree with your take on these recent moves. I feel that most of us is acting as if not signing this specific starter is the end of the world for this off season, while overlooking Gallen as if he hasn't been one of the high tier aces in the league for the past 5+ years with a consistent pitching load. And after last year, I will gladly be one of the few "delusional" fan who will not say a thing about our offseason moves until the first stretch of this 2026 season. We all raised questions when our big pitching signing last year was Matthew Boyd until he became one of our best this season. This team, for the most part, has a talent in recognizing hidden pitching gems, and I want to put faith in our recent bullpen signings, as well as whoever starter we might bring in next. Now for the bats, well, that's were I don't have hope in our front office.

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