Left-hander Shota Imanaga has become a free agent, according to a report from Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The Chicago Cubs declined their three-year, $57M club option on Imanaga’s services for 2026-28, and Imanaga subsequently declined his $15M player option for 2026. It’s an outcome that would’ve seemed unthinkable just a few months ago. Signed out of Japan to a deal that was on paper a four-year, $53M contract during the 2023-24 offseason that had the aforementioned complex option structure set to kick in after the 2025 campaign, Imanaga was nothing short of sensational for Chicago in his first year as an MLB pitcher last year. In 29 starts, he pitched to a 2.91 ERA with a 25.1% strikeout rate across 173 1/3 innings of work that earned him an All-Star appearance and a fifth-place finish in NL Cy Young award voting last year. While that strong rookie campaign seemed to portend an extended stay near the front of Chicago’s rotation for Imanaga, things started to unravel this year. Early in the season, he managed to
