Chicago Cubs Splash Signing Has Remained Team's MVP All Season

The Chicago Cubs brought in a rookie pitcher from Japan and he's exceeded all expectations so far.

Sep 10, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Shota Imanaga (18) reacts on a third out of the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. / Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The Chicago Cubs lost out on the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes this past offseason but their consolation prize has been everything they could have asked for.

As The Athletic's Tim Britton searched for who has been the Cubs' MVP this season, the answer was clearly left-handed pitcher Shota Imanaga.

"Imanaga placed the cherry on top of his sterling rookie campaign with seven innings in Chicago's combined no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. A team's record behind an individual starter can occasionally be misleading — check out Jacob deGrom, 2018-2019 for a trip — but the Cubs' 20-6 mark with him on the mound is the best for any starter in baseball," he wrote.

The southpaw was an elite pitcher in Japan. He was a two-time All-Star and pitched a no-hitter back in 2022. Over his eight seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, he put up a 2.96 ERA with an impressive 1.076 WHIP. He finished with a sub-3.00 ERA in six of those campaigns.

Despite clearly having some talent, he was not the focus of many teams trying to bring over a Japanese pitcher.

Yamamoto stole the show as he is younger, more decorated, and seemingly had better stuff that would translate to the MLB game thanks to some extra velocity.

Chicago was one of the team's trying to lure him in, along with many of the other names that sat atop free agency. Most of their targets ended up signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

When they failed to sign him, they brought in Imanaga.

While he had plenty of promise in his own right, it still felt like they were settling.

There were questions about how the 31-year-old rookie would be able to adjust to MLB batters. He's a guy that throws a 91 mph fastball and people felt like hitters would be able to adjust.

The start of his career went about as well as one could have asked for. He had just a 0.84 ERA through his first nine starts and was looking like one of the best pitchers in baseball.

He then had a rough stretch of a similar length where he had a 6.51 ERA over seven games. The feeling was that he had been figured out and the cinderella run may have been over.

Since the middle of July, though, he's looked closer to where he did to start the season. Over his last eleven games, he has a 2.86 ERA and the Cubs have gone 9-2.

He's been one of the biggest bright spots in a fairly disappointing year for Chicago.