What comes next for Shota Imanaga, Cubs after contract option declined? I Marquee Sports Network

What comes next for Shota Imanaga, Cubs after contract option declined? I Marquee Sports Network

So, what happened here is the Cubs, they declined a three-year 57.75 million option. Shota then declined his player option at 15 million. That made him a free agent. The Cubs then extend the qualifying offer that’s just over 22 mil. Now, we wait to see if Shota will accept. So, on that note, Bruce, where are you thinking Soda is at? Because there’s money and years and you know, that’s all part of the conversation what players are looking at. Well, the the important thing right now is that they have this 10-day period to get another deal done. So, they they don’t have to do the qualifying offer. They can make a contract with SHO and his agent right now. One year, two-year, three-year deal. Obviously, a one-year deal is not going to work. He’s already got that. So, how creative can they get, Lance? Can they go to a two-year deal with an option for a third or one-year deal with an option for the second? So that showed is guaranteed at least more money for the first year. It’s a great point. So I I think initially when this news came out, I was a bit surprised and reading kind of the tea leaves in the industry, there was also a bit of surprise, but then the understand that the Cubs turned down the first 3 mil, but then yeah, the three for 57, but then you start to understand that there’s a small posting fee attached to that that would have gone back to his MPB team, which pushes the value of that contract into the mid60 $60 million window. If you kind of try to ballpark his market, I feel like it comes in right at 2 for40. If he thinks he’s going to get like three for 50 plus, I’d be very surprised. And I think that’s what Bruce is talking about. This 10day window is for his and him and his agent to figure out whether they can get a deal that surpasses what the Cubs could counter with. And they have the advantage of the Qo. At the end of the day, my takeaway here is that it it’s a weird situation, but I would be surprised if Shota is not a Cub in 2026. Well, I think both sides really appreciate each other. So, that’s really important. He’s had success here. He had a down end of the year after the injury. They feel with proper rehab that he’s going to go back to being the pitcher that he is. But on the other side of it, uh what if he’s not? What if it’s it’s one of those summers in Chicago where the wind is actually blowing out and that 1.8 home runs per outing turns into 2.5? That is that is the problem that you’re dealing with here. Trying to guess whether the home run ball is going to be as impactful as it has been for Shota who gave up 23 home runs in the last 13 times he pitched. Just highlighting your point. I was going to mention most runs would not via the home run. So that’s kind of what you’re saying why the wind does play a factor. I I just want to mention because it it feels like every the elephant in the room here when we talk about all of these deals or you know who you’re looking at in the offseason is the 2027 season and what it’s going to look at like with the lockout. So when you look at multiple years I feel like that is in the equation but what we’re looking at really was showed as you mentioned you know maybe was he 100% healthy coming back from his injury and Lance what were you noticing in the metrics like and how that played a part or what you could tell at least. Yeah, I mean you could you could split this a bunch of ways. It’s it’s as simple for me as velocity. He was down a full mile per hour relative to 2024 when he’s which he likes to be in his legs. We know that when you’re talking about intervals of velocity around 1 mile per hour in the window of like 90 to 93ish, which is usually where Shota sits, it is really impactful. And you see this right here. This is his career in MLB with the Cubs. On the left side, you have below 92 miles per hour. On the right side, it’s 92 plus. Just look at the top line. opponent’s slugging percentage. He cuts about 160 points of slug off his fastball when he’s 92 plus. And if you look at the bottom line, the footnote here, 83% of the pitches he threw above 92 mph in his major league career were all in 2024. So you could split this a variety of ways. He needs to locate better, the splitter needs to be better, whatever. For me, it’s as simple as I would theorize something around his injury le leaked into his delivery, pull down the velocity, and I imagine he heads into the offseason with a very clear plan is he has to get back to this interval where he’s sitting 92 so he can protect his fast ball from giving up as many home runs as Bruce is saying. If you’re wrong and it ends up being just age and attrition, also possible. Yeah. Then then then you have an issue where okay, we only have one year commitment here, maybe a year with an option. Okay, so he signs a two-year deal. The second year is an option. It’s a it’s a it’s an mutual option where there’s a buyout for both for for him as well. So he’s guaranteed a certain amount of extra money. Let’s say he signs a a $19 million contract for 2026 and a $20 million for 2027 with an option for both and a buyout that takes it with a buyout up another $5 million. So he’s guaranteed at least like 23 24 million for this year. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

Marquee Sports Network’s Elise Menaker, Lance Brozdowski and Bruce Levine discuss the Shota Imanaga contract decision and the Chicago Cubs extending a qualifying offer to the veteran left-hander on “Cubs 360.”

Download the Marquee Sports Network app and subscribe to watch live Cubs games, exclusive programming and much more:
Mobile: https://bit.ly/4jLEBqN
Desktop: https://bit.ly/3Era9Dg

#ChicagoCubs #mlb #baseball #MarqueeSportsNetwork #Subscribe #Like #Comment

CONNECT
✔️ Subscribe to Marquee Sports Network’s YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/3ETUr3p
✔️ Subscribe to the Cubs Daily Podcast and Cubs Weekly Podcast: https://bit.ly/4gUMZ5s
✔️ Stream Cubs games at: https://watchmarquee.com

FOLLOW MARQUEE SPORTS NETWORK ON SOCIAL MEDIA
► Our website: https://www.marqueesportsnetwork.com/
► X: https://x.com/WatchMarquee
► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/watchmarquee
► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WatchMarquee
► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@watchmarquee

The official YouTube page of Marquee Sports Network, home to the best Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears, Chicago Fire, AUSL, Chicago Stars FC, and local college and high school sports coverage.

What comes next for Shota Imanaga, Cubs after contract option declined? I Marquee Sports Network