With their offseason off to a very poor start, the Chicago Cubs are trying to make up ground. The Cubs have finally entered free agency, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. On January 9, they reached a tentative agreement with Japanese pitcher Shōta Imanaga, subject to a physical examination.

Nightengale provided more details on social media, mentioning Shōta Imanaga’s upcoming medical on Wednesday in Chicago, ahead of the deadline on Thursday. Imanaga has a 45-day posting window that ends on January 11. “After he clears his physical at a press conference on Friday, the deal with the Chicago Cubs officially becomes official.”

Imanaga went 64–50 with a 3.18 ERA in his eight seasons as a member of the Yokohama Bay Stars in Nippon Professional Baseball. In 159 innings pitched last season, the left-hander struck out 188 batters, or 29.5% of the hitters he faced, and recorded a 2.66 ERA. He pitched the first two innings of Japan’s gold-medal game victory over the United States, which was a major contributing factor to the team’s success at the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Imanaga’s low-90s fastball, which he threw almost 60% of the time in 2023, is his main weapon on the mound. In addition, he used his slider on slightly more than 15% of pitches, resulting in a strikeout percentage that was about 40%.

After everything is final, Imanaga will start games for the Cubs in the starting rotation with right-handers Kyle Hendricks, Jameson Taillon, and Javier Assad, as well as fellow southpaw Justin Steele.

According to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, “Imanaga’s deal with the Cubs, once finalised, will be for multiple years with an average annual value in the $15 million range.” This suggests that the Cubs may have landed a more team-friendly contract than initially anticipated.

Days after Yoshinobu Yamamoto, another free agent from Japan, inked a $325 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, ESPN’s Jeff Passan forecast that Imanaga would likely earn a contract worth nine figures this winter as well. Even though it seems a bit optimistic, Imanaga most certainly signed a five-year, $75 million contract, which is more than what Kodai Senga received from the New York Mets in the previous offseason.