Shota Imanaga will enter free agency | Mully & Haugh

Shota Imanaga will enter free agency | Mully & Haugh

reality is that uh Showda’s future with the team a little murkier than it was uh earlier today. He had until Thursday, I believe, to make this call after the World Series, maybe 5 days or so. And there was an option in there and that for the Cubs to pick up this option, we would have been clamoring like what are they thinking? What are they watching? Yes. Three years, $57 million for a pitcher that down the stretch was not good or had regressed. And you have to look at the numbers in September especially Mully he gave up 11 home runs in the in this month of November and let’s see three five 10 home runs. Yeah that was enough. He was not the same pitcher and in the playoffs you saw uh semblance of show what you had seen previously but not enough. I just understand why they would be unwilling to go three years and then he declines um a $15 million option. His his contract was complicated and now that he’s a free agent. What that means is the Cubs still can make a qualifying offer of $22 million. If he trusts his ability to get a deal in the open market that’s richer than that, more security than that, then he’s an ex-cub. If he is an ex- Cub and takes someone else signs him, the Cubs will get draft compensation if they make a qualifying offer. Yes. If he takes the Cubs qualifying offer at $22 million, he has one year to prove it and to go and hit free agency. Again, he likes being a Cub. You wonder what that’s worth to him. You wonder if he understood this going in. Yep. Uh it’s it’s also indicative of what you said. they may have their sight set on somebody else in free agency. You know, here is the the reality is that they both the team and Shota have rejected the option to extend his contract for another year and that means that he is a free agent. So, he is entitled. You know, they can still bring him back. They can still talk to him. He may still want to return, but he is now a free agent. Sure. No doubt about it. And that’s but you’re protected against losing your own free agents if you make qualifying offers. Yeah. Yeah. No problem. And that’s the key thing that they don’t want to lose them for nothing. And it’s just like Cody Bellinger with the uh Yankees opting out. You then if they make the qualifying offers, they protect themselves from getting something in return at least. But I think if you look at the his game two start against the Brewers was a disaster and there’s no way around that. You just can’t pretend that that it wasn’t. It was just bad. He’s a popular player. Yeah. Is he a projectable one? I You know what I mean? It’s next year. What would you get? Is he Is he your second starter? No. Is he your fifth starter? Fourth or fifth starter? He if he comes back likely. Let’s go through the lineup. Let’s go through the rotation. I know. I know you need probably six to eight starting pitchers, but Justin Steel is coming back. Yes. Steel Horton Tyion. Yes. Matthew Boyd. Right. There’s Fork is Colin Ray. What’s his situation? Will he come back? Depending on situ Who’s the young guy? Jackson. Jackson Wiggins. Wiggins. Jackson Wiggins is somebody. We talked to Dan Canervitz on the inside the clubhouse. Bruce and I did a couple on Saturday. They’re high on him. Yeah. Jackson Wiggins is somebody that might be ready after watching what the uh Blue Jays did with Treya Savage. You wonder about your young pitching in your organization. Jackson Wiggins is one of those guys. Here’s the thing, David, and there’s no getting around this. If you if I said to you midway through the season, maybe at the beginning of the season, hey, they’ve got to make this decision on show, are you picking up those three years? You would have said absolutely un undeniably you’re doing that. Now, here you go. You get to that point and you’re not. That’s that that speaks volumes about the way things played out. Well, see, Molly, if you would ask me that question before the end of July, it was an easy answer. But what happened after you remember the White Sox start? I do. Okay. He got showed got shelled. Y and since that that was July 27th, I believe in his last 12 starts, he had a 517 RA and he gave up 20 home runs in 69 and two-thirds innings. Yeah, that’s not something you’re going to miss. But that my point is that the conversation about him changed and it was no longer it was no longer a a sure thing and and now here we are and I don’t think anyone’s super surprised by it. Shouldn’t be shouldn’t be. No, for that very reason. So, when you talk about the projected starting pitching and we just did and we went through the list and you got your four guys and maybe a fifth also that that doesn’t even factor in the potential targets in free agency. Bruce also reported on inside the clubhouse that the Cubs will be involved with Dylan CE a free agent pitcher. Yeah, you may have mentioned how Framber Valdez would be somebody worth exploring. Those both make sense because if you are a top of the market team like the Cubs and you should be pursuing these top of the market free agents. Look, I I mean the reality is that we just saw a World Series that was won because pitching is better than hitting. There is no doubt that that the Toronto Blue Jays probably out hit the Dodgers through the entire World Series. The Dodgers won the World Series because their pitching was better. Period. End of story. And and I know what um Y Savage did. I understand that there were different moments, but but who’s the MVP and why is the guy the MVP? It’s cuz pitching is greater than Yamamoto. Got any more of those? Yeah, get get a guy like that. All right, we got people who want to check in. 3126446767. Jim is in Beecher. Hey Jim. Hey guys. Uh yeah, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to weigh in on the uh Imanaga thing. I’m a White Sox fan and up to that point and uh I think David just mentioned it. He kind of like, “Wait a minute.” That’s what I was going to say. But up to that point, I was cruising. Uh there that that White Socks game totally out of the blue. He just fell off a cliff. Three homers. uh the White Sock using him as batting practice, but wasn’t he hurt also? Uh he did have an injury this year that you wonder if he ever really recovered from. Good call, Jim. I think that’s a good memory as well. He was never quite himself. He started out looking familiar, but then the injury maybe got in the way. And since that start, July 25th, it was all downhill for Shota. And Molly, the decision seems official today or this is the news that when it broke, but didn’t they tell you that this was gonna happen when they chose not to start him in game five? Game five against the Brewers basically what could you do? Shota was ready. He was there available. They started an they started Drew Pomerance as an opener. So that tells you how much confidence they had lost in the lefty and this was inevitable given the commitment that they would have had to have made. Yeah. I I I I don’t argue with any of those ideas, David. I just think that, you know, there’s a part of me that feels sad because I I really enjoyed him and and when you know, it’s typical of of a Chicago sports fan. You love the guy when he’s pitching great. And then when he’s off the boil, you’re like, “Next move. What are you doing?” You don’t know how you don’t know how the conversations have gone between him and his representatives either. You you you don’t know if this is necessarily an automatically a goodbye or stay tuned because the $22 million is for one year could be a prove it deal for SHO. He may want to do that because he he does like being a cub. Hey, I I love the commercial. I think it’s he’s a guy who’s a good guy to have around. You hate that commercial. You wanted to get rid of him. You You made this decision when that com when you saw what and I will quote you his doughy body. Okay. Just because he’s a doughy body doesn’t mean I wanted him to leave town. I I appreciated what he did. Last year Sha was fantastic. this year. The first half was fine. What happened? He cursed himself with that commercial. What happened the second half of the season is something that no contender can tolerate. Yeah. If the if the Cubs want to be taken seriously as a World Series contender next year, I don’t know how they would have been able to justify having him in the rotation right now. Or maybe in the rotation, but not certainly a guy that is your ace or your one or two. I mean, you know, the problem with this is we haven’t even gotten, you know, we don’t we’re not even talking about Kyle Tucker and where he’s going. And we mentioned Bellinger earlier in the program. Could he come back? Um, but the problem with this is we’re talking about guys leaving, not guys staying, right? And I think both those guys are in the same category. We’ll see. But I I think Sha liked it here. did very well here and hopefully is back for another year, but I think it’s an ifcome now. It It’s just not something you can count on. I think both situations are very different. Yeah. Shoda was not worth a $57 million commitment over the next three years. Yeah, that’s my opinion. I think theirs Kyle Tucker, those are negotiations that have yet to happen. Maybe they have begun in channels, but it doesn’t it doesn’t feel like number one Yeah, they’re going to be involved. And number two, he wants to come back. Frankly, you didn’t get that sense. No, you never got that sense. You never got that sense that it was Chicago was somewhere he was longing to be forever. And we’ve had more conversations about replacing his bat than we had about replacing Shota’s arm. And that’s just the reality of uh of kind of the the um health issues the Cubs suffered through this season to the point where you felt like they they owed it to themselves to start him in a game against Milwaukee when we kind of anticipated what was going to go wrong and then the second time out. Let’s not do that. And and you’re right and and let’s we don’t want to be glib or or overlook the fact that we heard Jed Hoyer coming into the segment and we have heard Craig Council talk about Sha Imanaga is an extremely popular player in that clubhouse as much as he is to the fan base and I think they really respect him and they really are fond of him and I do wonder it had to be a difficult decision from an emotional standpoint but from a baseball perspective it was the smartest one they could make. Now, how because of that relationship, you do wonder what will happen next and do they have an an unspoken agreement that he will come back for that $22 million, which if he does, okay, that’s a worthwhile gamble for a team like the Cubs to take. $22 million for your fourth or fifth starter might seem expensive, but he also might be somebody that is worth it if you if you like the player and you can live with the pitcher. So, there’s still, I think, another element to this that we have yet to know. I I I’ll be very curious um h how this works out. And and again, I I get it. I understand what’s happening right now. I just want to know how this ends and and how you replace him. That’s all. That’s that’s the only thing. Are you are you looking for a topshelf guy to to replace him? Are you looking to figure out how to save a few bucks and go for a middle of the road guy? 847. I am sick about Showa becoming a free agent. H interesting. 630. Let’s be fond of a pitcher who throws 98. That’s pretty funny. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with

Mike Mulligan and David Haugh reacted to the breaking news that left-hander Shota Imanaga will become a free agent after the Cubs declined an option to extend his contract to a fifth year and Imanaga then declined his player option for 2026.

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