{"id":118407,"date":"2025-11-08T21:35:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T21:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=118407"},"modified":"2025-11-08T21:35:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T21:35:54","slug":"%e2%9a%a1-breaking-report-cubs-fans-fear-nightmare-scenario-as-all-star-ace-shota-imanaga-eyes-new-home-rival-teams-lining-up-and-one-contenders-interest-could-h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=118407","title":{"rendered":"\u26a1 BREAKING REPORT: Cubs Fans Fear \u201cNightmare Scenario\u201d as All-Star Ace Shota Imanaga Eyes New Home \u2014 Rival Teams Lining Up, and One Contender\u2019s Interest Could Haunt Chicago for Years! Insiders reveal that after opting out of his contract, Imanaga has become one of the most coveted arms on the market, drawing serious attention from teams like the Dodgers and Red Sox. The Cubs\u2019 failure to secure their breakout ace could gift a direct rival the pitching dominance that once electrified Wrigley Field \u2014 and fans are already bracing for heartbreak if he ends up delivering strikeouts against them next season."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Potential landing spot for Cubs All-Star ace Shota Imanaga could be &#8220;nightmare scenario&#8221; for Chicago fans originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Chicago Cubs have pretty much parted ways with their former ace Shota Imanaga, as he declined his player option and tests free agency. However, that may lead to a nightmare scenario for the Cubs fandom.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE:\u00a0Dodgers predicted to sign $53 million All-Star ace to replace Clayton Kershaw, would &#8220;break baseball&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fansided\u2019s Chris Landers believes that a top landing spot for Imanaga could be the Cubs\u2019 eternal rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards need a pitcher who can eat innings and will be relatively low-cost, which Imanaga can do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe St. Louis Cardinals don&#8217;t figure to be major players in free agency as they begin a retooling under Chaim Bloom. That said, they do need pitching, and while preferably that pitching would be younger and more cost-controlled than someone like Imanaga, the fact of the matter is that young, cost-controlled pitchers aren&#8217;t exactly easy to come by. Someone&#8217;s going to have to eat up innings, and Imanaga would fit well in one of the friendlier ballparks around for fly-ball pitchers. Plus, his down end to 2025 could keep his price reasonable, allowing the Cardinals to pounce on a low-risk deal that they can always flip for value at the trade deadline,\u201d Landers wrote.<\/p>\n<p>This past season, Imanaga had a slight step back from his rookie season, finishing with a record of 9-8, an ERA of 3.73, 117 Ks, and a WHIP of 0.998 in 144 innings pitched. However, for the Cards, this would be just fine.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE:\u00a0Tigers predicted to help Tarik Skubal in final year by signing two-time All-Star closer to one-year, $10 million deal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, Imanaga goes somewhere else or finds his way home on a team-friendly deal. Otherwise, it will be bittersweet for Cubs fans when they see their old ace on their rivals\u2019 team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE\u00a0MLB\u00a0NEWS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Yankees urged to pursue $7.75 million All-Star to replace Ryan McMahon, upgrade lineup&#8217;s contact ability<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Red Sox All-Star ace Lucas Giolito sends strong message to team about wanting to stay in Boston: &#8220;I made it clear to you&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Yankees urged to sign $58 million 29 SV closer to replace Devin Williams in their &#8216;super bullpen&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This would be very upsetting for Cubs fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":118408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[282,2713,2216,1430,117,72,2013],"class_list":["post-118407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chris-landers","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-dodgers","tag-shota-imanaga","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-tarik-skubal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u26a1 BREAKING REPORT: Cubs Fans Fear \u201cNightmare Scenario\u201d as All-Star Ace Shota Imanaga Eyes New Home \u2014 Rival Teams Lining Up, and One Contender\u2019s Interest Could Haunt Chicago for Years! Insiders reveal that after opting out of his contract, Imanaga has become one of the most coveted arms on the market, drawing serious attention from teams like the Dodgers and Red Sox. The Cubs\u2019 failure to secure their breakout ace could gift a direct rival the pitching dominance that once electrified Wrigley Field \u2014 and fans are already bracing for heartbreak if he ends up delivering strikeouts against them next season. - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=118407\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u26a1 BREAKING REPORT: Cubs Fans Fear \u201cNightmare Scenario\u201d as All-Star Ace Shota Imanaga Eyes New Home \u2014 Rival Teams Lining Up, and One Contender\u2019s Interest Could Haunt Chicago for Years! Insiders reveal that after opting out of his contract, Imanaga has become one of the most coveted arms on the market, drawing serious attention from teams like the Dodgers and Red Sox. The Cubs\u2019 failure to secure their breakout ace could gift a direct rival the pitching dominance that once electrified Wrigley Field \u2014 and fans are already bracing for heartbreak if he ends up delivering strikeouts against them next season. - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This would be very upsetting for Cubs fans.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=118407\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-08T21:35:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtvip-2025-11-09T043219.376.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=118407\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=118407\",\"name\":\"\u26a1 BREAKING REPORT: Cubs Fans Fear \u201cNightmare Scenario\u201d as All-Star Ace Shota Imanaga Eyes New Home \u2014 Rival Teams Lining Up, and One Contender\u2019s Interest Could Haunt Chicago for Years! 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