Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Expectations are much lower for Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris discussed expectations for Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga this season.

Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Middays 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. Leaded first by Jackson Merrill, the pitch. Swing and a miss. Strike three, and that's out number one. Excellent pitch by Shota as he goes at the breaking ball. He's not having a great feel for that split, so he goes with a little slower hook, throws it down and in, and Bogart's really not ready for that pitch. Well out in front of it. The dagger for Shoda?

What are we doing here? We're getting out of control. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 104 to score. Now my hockey brain is combining with my baseball brain, and I'm still not over football brain. And I don't know what names are going to come out of my head, and I apologize in advance. But one thing we do know well is that Shoda Imanaga

was the recipient of savvy timing and a very interesting contract structure. Shoda had an option. We were all trying to figure out what it was at the end of last season. It was a mutual. The club declined the option. Then he had the option to opt back in with a raise or test the market. And if so, the Cubs were going to get a compensatory pick.

As we know, he did not test the market. And now Shoda Imanaga got a raise. Up to $22 million is what he is being paid. And the concern is he started with a 265. ERA in the first half with an 093 whip and then had a 470 ERA and a 104 whip in the second half. Is that bad? It got worse in the playoffs.

And the home run became something that was a common result of what we saw of him at the mound. Layla, look at it like this. Well before the regular seasons ended, what did I tell you about Shodeminaaga? He can't be a part of your playoff rotation. He gives up too many home runs, and we know by and large, home runs are the deciding factor in most playoff games. Not all, but most. And when you look at what this guy did, first half versus second half, understand this.

He gave up almost twice as many home runs in the second half as he did in the first half. He gave up 11 home runs in his first 12 starts. He gave up 20 home runs over his last 13 starts. And I think he still has a street going of games. giving up a home run in starts. Am I correct that? I'm going to look it up to make sure. Yeah, I've just got the splits in front of me.

That's why I was able to see those easily. Let's look at the old game log. Well, so according to the game log, I'll tell you this. He, as he famously did not pitch in the postseason in his last opportunity to pitch. The Cubs skipped him, did not throw him out there. He gave up three home runs over two postseason appearances. So he gave up home runs in each of those. And if you go back to the regular season and add his last nine regular season starts,

he gave up 11 straight starts, home runs. Yeah, you have to go back to August 5th against Cincinnati, who now has Ahayno Souraz, to see the last game where he didn't give up a home run. That was a 5-to-1 loss. He still ended up giving up one-earned run, at least in that ball game. But that's fine. Six and a third, three hits one-on run. that's the show that you thought you signed up for.

Yeah, not the eighth spot that he gave up to the Mets. You and I watched that show. Actually, with our guest at noon Clay Harbor, if you recall, at Old Crow. That was bad. The four earned runs against the Milwaukee Brewers was not great. That was two home runs and that, but that was only two and two-thirds innings in that outing. And that's the last time we saw on pitch. That was on October 6th of last year.

Shota gets the raise. The Cubs end up having. to pay him, and we've batted around the idea of a six-man rotation when it comes to trying to figure out how he fits in on this team. I think it's clear that as of right now, he feels like insurance because you look at the other starters in this rotation to start it off, and I think honestly, unless something, I don't always say drastic changes, unless there's a return to what he looked like in the first half of the season, he's not in your top five. pitchers. And that's including Colin Ray.

I'm going to be honest with you. I mean, the other part of this, too, is Justin Steele. We know it's probably at least two months before we're talking about a return for him. And that's what makes this tricky. And we still don't know where Zach Allen is going yet, so that also adds to the intrigue.

And I think whether or not you say he feels like insurance, he needs to be insurance. Well, sometimes insurance is costly depending on where you live and what kind of weather patterns are happening, like, you know, to get insured in Florida now as an arm and maybe both your legs.

It's Matthew Boyd, it's Eduardo Cabrera, it's Kate Horton, it's Jameson, and then it's Shoda Imanaga. And you could argue it should be Colin Ray, the spot starter, the sixth swing man, ahead of Shodamanauga. But the Cubs obviously, obviously are very confident that they can fit Shota Emma Imanaga's problems. Otherwise, why would they give them the qualifying offer? Oh, wait.

They thought he was going to sign somewhere else. They did. I am convinced they thought that because of the pitching market or what they thought about the pitching market, that he was going to go to the market and then the Cubs were going to get a pick. Confident. Here's what we know. We know that that's $22.9 million of the Cubs budget that they don't have available to them right now.

And if Zach Gowan, who's still out here, looking for a job, was out here and the Cubs had an extra $22.9. $9 million. Maybe Zach Gallon was already a cub right now. Man, and that's it. It's that, you know, we're not talking about the Dodgers payroll here. We're talking about the Cubs payroll. So that money does matter. And it takes up probably a spot for somebody else. And that's what the concern is. So Shoda Imanaga was discussed yesterday appropriately as pitchers and catchers reported to Mesa. And Craig Counsel was asked about Shoda and the process to get him back in his groove.

With some of the factors that were in play with showed up in the second half, what's your optimism that he could kind of get back to the group of the he was before the injury, kind of the domino effect? Yeah, I mean, I'm very excited for Shota to have an outstanding season. I really think, look, look, this is, he is going to respond kind of to the things that happened at the end of the year, and, you know, he wasn't happy how he pitched. and that's what great competitors do. They respond to things like that.

And he will absolutely respond to them very confident in that. If you could pick one thing he kind of did in the offseason to sort of move forward, what might it be? Yeah, I mean, there was not, it's all very subtle. Like it's not, it doesn't have to be a big thing. I think that's the difficulty of Major League Baseball, is that these guys are at a level. where the difference between success and struggle is very tiny, and the adjustments, they're,

they're small. And, and also sometimes, like, that's why, you know, you think you can fix yourself, like, immediately, but it's, it's just a very subtle, the subtle things, like, can get you off track, and sometimes you need to step back a little bit to, to see that. Right. And I think, so I think as much as anything, you know, Shoda probably needed a little bit of time to be able to step back a little bit. And that gives you some clarity as much as anything. I mean, that sounds good. But my biggest concern about Shota isn't time, isn't time off. It's that his pitching profile is a high fastball tunnel with a splitter. And that high fastball ranges in, in the 90 to 92 range. It feels like the location has to be so precise for him to get away with what he was trying to get away with in the second half of the season.

And is that velocity going to tick up? There's no indication that it will. I mean, even in hearing that answer about Shoda and what needs to happen for him to get back to the guy that he was, there was not a bullet that let you know this has to happen. It was more of a, he just has to get away from the game and get a, a feel back for, I don't like that. When the way you pitch is eventually going to lead to these results, you know the deal you're making. It's just a matter of how long you want to let that ride.

Maybe the question is how often do you want to let that ride? Well, yes. Because the six-man rotation can kind of take away from having to deal with that every day and maybe five days' rest as opposed to four days' rest even can help show to regain something. And you see how I'm kind of grasping at straws? I feel like everyone in this situation is grasping at straws in the moment. I feel like we're just picking up where the team left off in the playoffs. What did they do? You know, it was one game they prevented Shoda from being an opener.

Another one they decided to go ahead. Or being an opener, being a starter. You know, there was an opener for Shota. Another game they tried to balance it in a different manner. It was piecemealing everything you possibly could, remixing the opening day. starter or the home opener starter. No, he was the opening day starter. Yeah, he started

the first game, but I think that has as much to do as being in Japan as anything else. But he started the home opener too, so there was that. But remixing arguably who should have been your first or second best pitcher at that point and having to take that approach in the playoffs.

And I understand it led to Jed Hoyer and Craig counsel saying pitching was a priority. But when you have to take those steps, how are we not just picking up where the Cubs left off when it came to trying to manage him in a way that would provide some results. I don't think we're getting any more clarity. I thought maybe we'd get a little something extra on, you know, the start of spring training, but it appears that we're just getting started

and we're not as far along as I would like to be in analyzing what the problem is. More importantly, what is the solution for Shodahima Naga on a one-year $22.9 million deal? I mean, that's it. It's hard to be so lamenting his raise, but when you understand that it could have been avoided, that's what makes this so difficult. Like, he's on your team and you're going to have to use him, and you're going to have to figure out the best way to be able to do so while you're still waiting for Justin Steele to come back. It's crazy.

After his first three starts this season, remember, he had four no-hit innings and just wasn't stretched out in that game against the Dodgers in Japan, but he gave up a run over his next two starts and went seven innings and then seven in a third. Didn't he still have four walks in that outing? He did have four walks. Yeah, so even then, even then you knew it was a little bit different of a performance

than we had seen the year before. And so what is it going to be this year and this time around? And frankly, I know the ball flies in Arizona, but that's as good of an understanding as to what he's doing as anything. Yeah, got to keep the ball in the park. That's goal number one at this point. Well, but even if he doesn't, then have that urgency and have that feeling of knowing what it's like to see the ball go out of the park again and try to figure that out.

But I'll be very curious to see how much he uses that splitter related to his fastball. And if the fastball command is better than it could be after last season. And frankly, also tipping pitches. Let's not forget that that was an issue too when he tipped all the pitches to the White Sox and they were able to tee off on him pretty well. Speaking of the White Sox, it's viral. We have to discuss it. Chris Gets traded away his most established homegrown hitter for somebody who, he has said multiple times was a switch hitter, except he wasn't. And it's one thing to do it in one media availability.

But we've got the receipts knowing it's not the only one. Let's examine next.