Chicago Cubs Manager Says ‘Simplicity’ Is Best Aspect of Ace’s Game

After a terrific rookie year, the Chicago Cubs manager praised his rookie ace's ability to keep it simple.

Sep 22, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga (18) throws the ball against the Washington Nationals during the first inning at Wrigley Field. / David Banks-Imagn Images

The Chicago Cubs had a whirlwind of an offseason, bringing Cody Bellinger back, making Craig Counsell their manager and winning the services of an ace pitcher from Japan in Shota Imanaga. The left-hander had an excellent rookie season at 31-years-old and Counsell mentioned that the best part of his game is that he simplified it after coming over.

Imanaga pitched eight seasons in the NPB, throwing 1,000.2 innings with a 3.18 ERA while striking out 9.2 batters per nine innings. He was a crafty lefty with a plethora of pitches, but he changed that in his first season in MLB.

"I still think the best thing and the genius in Shota this year is that he actually came here and simplified who he was," Counsell said.

Overall, Imanaga threw eight different pitches this year, according to Baseball Savant. While that may not seem simple, 82.6 percent of his pitches thrown came from just two pitches.

His four seam fastball was used 52 percent of the time while he used his split finger 30.6 percent of the time. His next best pitch, the sweeper, was used at a 7.7 percent rate. Combined, he threw his least used pitches only 451 times on the entire season, 341 times less than his splitter.

Clearly, Imanaga has the ability to switch it up in all different kinds of ways, but he decided not to.

"He actually made himself simpler. And there’s real genius in that, I think. And that was my kind of favorite thing about him is just watching him simplify things and get better. In a place where he had to have a lot of new things and different things thrown at him, most of us kind of make things more complicated in those situations. He made things simpler, and I think that was at the root of a lot of his success," the manager explained.

Success was correct. In his debut, Imanaga posted a 2.91 ERA with a 9.0 K/9 and a 3.1 bWAR in 173.1 innings. He was also selected to the National League All-Star team, the Cubs' lone representative. He'll be in the thick of it for the Rookie of the Year race in the NL.

It's a rare thing to see a pitcher simplify his stuff when he comes to the Big Leagues, but Imanaga did it very well.

"That is not an easy thing to do — a guy who’s coming from Japan to now pitching in the big leagues and is going to condense his repertoire. Most guys want to try to do more, but he did a fantastic job of that," pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said.

It's still to be seen if Imanaga continues to keep this simplistic approach, but it brought him a lot of success, so he might keep it up. Either way, his rookie season was exactly what the Cubs were expecting when they brought him over for Japan.