Chicago Cubs signs pitcher Shota Imanago (4 yrs, $53 million)
Philosophy of change: How Cubs’ Shota Imanaga is tackling MLB transition
Imanaga said his nickname — “The Throwing Philosopher” — came from his commitment to improvement and studying his craft.
New Cubs pitcher Shōta Imanaga didn’t mention location or history when asked about his priorities in free agency — though he’d been in Chicago, where his agency Octagon is based, since Dec. 26, and he’d researched the organization’s past.
“I wanted to be at a team where I myself, along with the team, can continue to get better and grow,” Imanaga said through interpreter Shingo Murata at his introductory news conference last week. “And while going through that process, the Cubs seemed like a really good match.”
The Cubs have some ideas of how to make that mutual growth happen.
For the team, signing Imanaga was the first step toward a productive offseason. For Imanaga, the first step will be adjusting to a new league and new country, a process any player coming to MLB from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball must go through.
“We have to project how they’re going to transition because it’s a different ball, those guys pitch on different schedules, and it’s different quality of competition,” vice president of pro scouting Andrew Bassett said over the phone. “There’s a lot to factor in. But we were really impressed by his ability to make adjustments, to make adjustments with his pitch mix, and he did it all the while remaining one of the most dominant pitchers in Japan.”
Imanaga led NPB’s Central League in strikeouts last year, even while tinkering with his splitter’s shape and mostly replacing his cutter with a slider. He also throws a curveball, two different changeups (a true changeup and a split change), a sinker and a four-seam fastball.
Bassett called Imanaga’s four-seamer, with its cut-ride qualities pairing with a relaxed delivery and slightly lower arm slot, “one of the better fastballs probably in the world.”
“It’s not just swing-and-miss, but also a ton of missed barrels, weak contact, high popup rates,” Bassett said. “It’s a pitch that we foresee transitioning really well in the major-leagues.”
For fly ball pitchers, high swing-and-miss rates can come with high home run rates. Imanaga gave up 17 home runs in Central League play last season. But there are also potential adjustments the Cubs can work with him to make.
“I’m really interested to talk to him about how he thought about using [his fastball] in Japan,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said in a conversation with the Sun-Times last weekend. “Because it looks to me like they pitch down a lot more than the potential of what I think he can do here. Also understanding what he’s trying to do with the pinch and how and how he can continue to grow that. But with the movement and the approach angle, you’d imagine that to have good success up in the strike zone.”
The baseball used in NPB is smaller and tackier, which can affect a pitcher’s grips for specific pitches. But Imanaga has used the MLB ball for offseason workouts, and he pitched well in the WBC despite the change in baseball. He said he’s “not concerned.”
Splitters tend to be more common in NPB than MLB – although right-handed Cubs reliever Mark Leiter Jr. throws a splitter that has made him effective against left-handed batters as well as right-handers.
Imanaga’s splitter has the potential to become his best secondary pitch, as long as he can get a good feel for it with the new ball and continue to develop it. It’s an especially rare pitch for a lefty in MLB.
Imanaga’s splitter used to cut in on right-handed batters, Bassett said, the same direction as his fastball. But Imanaga tweaked it this past season to have more north-south movement, dropping at the bottom of the strike zone.
“He’s known as the [throwing] philosopher,” Hottovy said, referencing Imanaga’s nickname. “So it’s going to be really fun to get to know him and learn what makes him tick, and what he values, and how we can continue to help him grow, and what he wants to learn.”
Now the Cubs are poised to have “The Throwing Philosopher” and “The Professor,” veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks, in the same rotation.
“Philosopher, that’s way above a professor in my eyes,” Hendricks said. “So I’ve got to pick his brain.”
According to Imanaga, the nickname has a much more humble connotation.
“I am by no means a finished product, and there’s a lot for me to learn, and there’s a lot for me to study day in and day out,” he said. “And I believe that my approach in that way somehow earned me the nickname.”
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