LAS VEGAS — As Shota Imanaga explores his options as a free agent, Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer signaled the club would welcome back the Japanese pitcher under certain circumstances.
“I don’t want to close that door,” Hoyer said Tuesday as Major League Baseball’s general managers gathered for their annual meetings.
This will be a pivotal week for Imanaga’s representatives, who are facing a Nov. 18 deadline to accept or reject a one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer from the Cubs. The GM meetings at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas are an opportunity to gauge the market for a 32-year-old lefty who was an All-Star and a Cy Young Award contender as a rookie in 2024.
It’s also a chance to address some of the questions that surrounded Imanaga during the playoffs. He recently visited the Cressey Sports Performance facility in Florida, going into the pitching lab to provide teams with additional data and look at ways to improve.
The Sounds of Shota!
Great visit with #Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga at the new and improved CSP-FL facility. Here are snippets of his two bullpens in our pitching lab with @SwingCatalystBB force plates and @QualisysMocap cameras – plus Trackman and Edgertronic cameras. #cspfamily pic.twitter.com/JGnBJp3k1O
— Cressey Sports Performance (@CresseySP) October 26, 2025
Though Imanaga produced a good season overall (9-8, 3.73 ERA in 25 starts), he missed most of May and June with a strained left hamstring, an injury that may have disrupted his timing and mechanics.
Confidence also appeared to be an issue. Imanaga allowed 10 home runs in five September starts, resurfacing an issue that was identified in the industry’s scouting reports when he decided to leave Nippon Professional Baseball.
At that time, the group of teams with interest in Imanaga included the Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros.
By not using Imanaga in an October elimination game against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs foreshadowed last week’s decision not to exercise their three-year, $57.75 million option on his contract. From the club’s perspective, that third year was a sticking point.
Imanaga, in turn, declined his $15.25 million option for next season, which would have added another player option for 2027. His total guaranteed dollars over the next two years could have been at least $30.5 million.
Imanaga is a proud, competitive individual who feels like he has something to prove.
“You want to make sure nothing is lost in translation,” Hoyer said. “But it’s a complicated structure. And with that structure, ultimately, we felt like it wasn’t the right thing to do to pick up the club option. He very quickly felt like it wasn’t the right thing to do with the player option. There’s no hard feelings on either side.
“We just move forward. We each had a specific number, and I think he understands that. My dialogue with them has been really good. Bad blood or anything like that, that’s not something I worry about.”
