LAS VEGAS — By next Tuesday, the Cubs will know whether left-hander Shota Imanaga is accepting a $22 million-plus qualifying offer to re-sign with them for 2026.
If he accepts, the Cubs will have clarity on their starting pitching needs this offseason. If he declines, they’re open to further negotiation, team president Jed Hoyer said Tuesday.
“We obviously value Shota a ton,” Hoyer said at the general managers’ meetings in Las Vegas when asked about declining Imanaga’s three-year club option worth shy of $58 million. “He was amazing for us as a pitcher, as a teammate, and I don’t want to close that door completely by any stretch. But ultimately, we didn’t think the club option was the right value. He didn’t think that the player option was the right value. And that happens.”
Hoyer addressed reporters for the first time since his end-of-season news conference last month, speaking about the moves the Cubs have already made — declining Imanaga’s option, trading veteran reliever Andrew Kittredge and re-signing reliever Colin Rea. He also expounded on the Cubs’ biggest offseason priority: pitching.
“That’s obvious [when you] look at our depth chart,” Hoyer said. “We’re in pretty good position on the position-player side. On the pitching side, we’re thinner. And so I think that’s going to be our focus. And I expect to explore trades. I expect to explore free agency, both at the top of the market, but then also looking at minor-league free agency.”
As an example, Hoyer pointed to last year, when the Cubs signed left-hander Matthew Boyd to a two-year contract worth $29 million and added right-handed reliever Brad Keller on a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training. Both players were integral to the Cubs’ success.
Imanaga’s decision on the qualifying offer will come down before the trade and free-agent markets pick up this offseason. Hoyer said he wasn’t worried about the rejected club and player options causing friction in future discussions.
“Our decision doesn’t reflect at all our feelings about Shota,” he said. “I don’t think his decision reflects how he feels about the team. Both sides are trying to make the best decision for them, and we’ll continue to have dialogue.”
Taken as a whole, Imanga’s performance in the first two years of his contract was, in Hoyer’s words, “exceptional.” This past season, a strained left hamstring presented an unfamiliar challenge as his first time dealing with a lower-body muscle injury. His velocity was down when he came back from the injured list — understandable, considering it was an injury to his drive leg.
Imanaga’s four-seam fastball quickly regained velocity, but it didn’t fully rebound to the 91.7 mph he averaged with it in 2024, according to Statcast, instead sitting around 91 mph in August and September. Although Imanaga isn’t a flame-thrower by any means, maintaining velocity helps him create separation between his four-seam fastball and sinker.
Even during the season, the Cubs were developing an offseason plan for him to regain some of the lower-body strength and flexibility he couldn’t realistically build back while pitching every five or six days.
Imanaga is still expected to target those areas this offseason, regardless of whether he returns to the Cubs, and he’s expected to bounce back to pre-injury form. But the dip in velocity and increase in home runs off his fastball late in the season (eight in September) could raise discussions about long-term sustainability.
On the flip side, Imanaga still had stretches of dominance — a 3.73 ERA last season with a clear path forward to address the concerns that cropped up down the stretch. He should garner plenty of interest from other teams as his representatives gauge his market.
“It’s a whole body of work, is how you’re, you’re making an assessment of what you think player’s going to be in the future,” general manager Carter Hawkins said. “And so, yes, [recent struggles are] factored in, but you try not to factor it in too, too much. And obviously, the [qualifying offer] is a decent chunk of change too.”
NOTES: Hoyer said parting ways with Andrew Kittredge was “a close call.” The Cubs went into the offseason with him and young pitchers Daniel Palencia and Porter Hodge still on the roster, already looking at almost fully rebuilding their bullpen. But then they traded Kittredge — who had a $9 million club option or $1 million buyout left on his contract — back to the Orioles.
• Re-signing Colin Rea, who has starting and relieving experience, to a one-year deal with a 2027 club option addressed the Cubs’ needs.
