The Cubs made their first big move of the offseason on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
Starting pitcher Shota Imanaga is now a free agent, per ESPN\u2019s Jesse Rogers.<\/p>\n
Heading into the offseason, the Cubs had a team option on Imanaga, but it wasn\u2019t a standard one-year option. They could have exercised a three-year, $57 million deal that would have kept the lefty in Chicago through the 2028 season.<\/p>\n
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Since the Cubs did not pick up that option, Imanaga then had the choice of exercising his one-year, $15 million player option for 2026, which he also declined.<\/p>\n
The team could extend him a qualifying offer, which is valued at just north of $22 million for starting pitchers. If he declines that, the Cubs would get draft pick compensation when he signs elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The Cubs and Imanaga could also work out a lesser deal to return, but that seems unlikely at this point.<\/p>\n
Imanaga has pitched two seasons on the North Side and is a fan favorite.<\/p>\n
In his rookie season, Imanaga made 29 starts, posting a 2.91 ERA, finishing 5th in NL Cy Young Award voting. He was also selected to the MLB All-Star Game, where he pitched a shutout inning.<\/p>\n
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His 2025 season didn\u2019t end the way he would have liked. Over his last 14 appearances, Imanaga pitched to a 5.42 ERA and allowed 24 home runs during that stretch.<\/p>\n
The lefty was in line to start winner-take-all NLDS Game 5 against the Brewers, but after his postseason struggles, the Cubs elected to go with a bullpen game.<\/p>\n
Imanaga allowed three home runs in the postseason over 6.2 IP, with an 8.10 ERA.<\/p>\n
The post MLB rumors: Shota Imanaga hits free agency as Cubs decline option<\/a> appeared first on Marquee Sports Network – Home of the Cubs, Bears, Red Stars and Sky<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs made their first big move of the offseason on Tuesday morning. Starting pitcher Shota Imanaga is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[157,145086,352,1318,145085,363,107057,99,40434],"class_list":{"0":"post-271058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cubs-news","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-free-agent","12":"tag-jesse-rogers","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-shota-imanaga","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-the-cubs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}