Chicago Cubs Skipper Says Star Pitcher Has 'Passed Every Test'

It's safe to say that the Chicago Cubs manager has been impressed by what he's seen from his star pitcher this season.

Aug 26, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell (30) looks on during batting practice before a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Coming into the year, the Chicago Cubs were extremely happy when they landed Japanese international free agent Shota Imanaga after missing out on phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

The left-hander was one of the best pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball, making him a desired player on the open market. Perhaps if he had been the sole Japanese pitcher coming over, he would have been at the top of target boards by multiple teams around the league.

Instead, he largely went under the radar, landing with the Cubs on a four-year, $53 million contract that paled in comparison to the 12-year, $325 million deal his countryman Yamamoto signed.

Right now, it would be hard to say that Chicago is disappointed in this result.

Imanaga has been spectacular throughout this campaign, sitting with a 3.03 ERA and 133 ERA+ across his 28 starts that have been a pillar of consistency.

There was a rough stretch like all rookies face, but he was able to come out of that and continue to deliver much needed quality starts for the Cubs.

Manager Craig Counsell has been around plenty of good starters during his day, especially Corbin Burnes who won the NL Cy Young Award in 2021, and even he has been impressed with what Imanaga has done during his Major League debut season.

"I'm trying to think of something he hasn't handled well. I don't know if I can think of anything. He's passed every test or question that we've tried to ask about him. But I think at the base of it, what Shota's good at works. It works," he said per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic.

One of the reasons why he wasn't so heavily pursued, outside of being 31 years old, was teams and scouts were concerned his stuff wouldn't play as well in the MLB, especially when it came to his fly ball rate and home runs allowed.

Imanaga does sit tied for second in the National League for the most homers given up with 27, but he's been able to limit damage done against him by combining pinpoint accuracy and stuff that batters have a hard time picking up.

He leads the NL in Strikeout to Walk Ratio at 6.07, having struck out 170 batters while only walking 28. Combining that with his barrel rate at 9%, his hard hit rate at 39%, and his left on-base percentage at 79.3% per FanGraphs, he's been more than effective at shutting down opposing lineups.

As far as if this is sustainable or not going forward, Counsell has been impressed with his ability to adjust to the Major League schedule that Japanese pitchers normally struggle with during their first year in The Show.

"In terms of pitching on different days' rest, the innings that he's thrown this year, that's maybe the final part of the season test for him. Pitching some of his best baseball in September, I think he's showing us that. That's been awesome as well," he added.

Imanaga will certainly be a huge part of this rotation over the next few years as Chicago attempts to build a contending roster heading into 2025 and beyond.