{"id":338158,"date":"2025-12-09T02:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/338158\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T02:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:54:09","slug":"cubs-jed-hoyer-makes-clear-that-shota-imanaga-accepting-qualifying-offer-was-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/338158\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs’ Jed Hoyer makes clear that Shota Imanaga accepting qualifying offer was ‘a good thing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO \u2013 Cubs<\/a> president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer didn\u2019t mince words when asked about the impact of left-hander Shota Imanaga accepting the qualifying offer for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly we wouldn\u2019t have offered it if we weren\u2019t excited to have him back and if we were going to be handcuffed by it,\u201d Hoyer said Monday, addressing rumors<\/a> to the contrary, \u201cWe weren\u2019t blindsided.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs weren\u2019t initially sure what Imanaga would decide after his club and player options were declined and the team extended him the $22.025 million qualifying offer for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave some clarity as far as the rotation,\u201d Hoyer said. \u201cIt gave some clarity as far as available dollars. We knew going in that there was a possibility that that could happen \u2013 and a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imanaga, who in his 2024 rookie season finished fifth in NL Cy Young voting, struggled down the stretch last season and into the playoffs. But the prevailing theory is that the hamstring injury he sustained in early May eventually impacted his mechanics late in the season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything for him kind of stems off of the great ride he has on the fastball,\u201d Hoyer said, \u201cand that wasn\u2019t the case at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs are confident that their offseason plan for him can help address those issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely getting a super-motivated pitcher back,\u201d Hoyer said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t like the way the season ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyd balancing WBC ramp-up<\/p>\n

For pitchers, especially, committing to play in the World Baseball Classic means an early ramp-up entering spring training. But for Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd, who has committed to Team USA for the tournament, that schedule won\u2019t be altogether unfamiliar.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to ramp up early last year, and it worked out pretty well for him,\u201d Hoyer said Monday. \u201cSo I don\u2019t think the schedule will be that dissimilar to what we had to do for Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the Cubs arrived in spring training early to prepare for the Tokyo Series on March 18-19. Boyd, entering his first full season since returning the previous August from Tommy John surgery, showcased a jump in velocity in an exhibition game in Japan<\/a>, before posting a 3.21 ERA during the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the testing we were doing on him throughout, he maintained his strength really well,\u201d Hoyer said.<\/p>\n

Talent in Japan<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s free agent class coming over from Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball is headlined by right-hander Tatsuya Imai \u2013 who the Cubs have expressed interest in, a source confirmed \u2013 and power-hitting third baseman Munetaka Murakami.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be the best year so far, as far as players coming over from Japan,\u201d Hoyer said. \u201cThere\u2019s a number of really good players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs have put an emphasis on talent evaluation and acquisition from the Pacific Rim in recent years, resulting in the signings of right fielder Seiya Suzuki in 2022 and Imanaga last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO \u2013 Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer didn\u2019t mince words when asked about the impact of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-338158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338158","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=338158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}