Cubs Ace Shota Imanaga Reveals Reason Behind Command Issues Last Season

The Chicago Cubs ended up with Shota Imanaga for a third season after all. Now, he’s revealing why he believes he took a downturn last season.

Chicago offered him the one-year qualifying offer of $22 million in November, and he accepted, deferring free agency for one more season. He and Cubs both hope they’re getting the 2024 version and not the 2025 version.

Imanaga’s rookie season saw him go 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA with 174 strikeouts and 28 walks. He was an All-Star, finished fourth in National League rookie of the year and fifth in NL Cy Young voting. Last season, he went 9-8 with a 3.73 ERA. He struck out 117 and walked 26. His strikeout rate per nine innings dropped from 9.0 in 2024 to 7.3 in 2025.

So what happened from year to year? Imanaga thinks he knows.

Shota Imanaga on last year’s troubles

Imanaga went on the injured list on May 5 with a left hamstring strain. That kept him out for more than a month. He revealed during his recent podcast, “Shotaism” in 9 Innings, that it was his first muscle strain and believes that those types of injuries can be prevented. He said that how he ate — and how his weight loss in his rookie season — influenced the injury suffered against the Milwaukee Brewers.

“The year before, my weight dropped about 3 kilograms [approximately 6.67 pounds] around May, and that was a lesson. So, in April [2025] I tried hard to eat and not lose weight. I thought feeling a little heavy might help with my pitching power, but in the end, that idea was wrong. I focused too much on maintaining my weight and neglected other important things.”

X user CubbyMike76 translated part of the podcast.

Imanaga wouldn’t be the first player to eat more after losing weight the previous year. He estimated that he gained 1.5 kilograms, or roughly three pounds compared to 2024 in the same span. While injured, he admitted he didn’t handle the downtime well, saying that he needed the “tension” of gameday. He also worked with the pitching coaching staff on his mechanics.

“We discussed how to increase velocity, improve control and release breaking balls,” he said. “That deep discussion was not a waste.”

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He also expressed surprise at the amount of time he needed to be ready to pitch. He said that it wasn’t about the rehab to get back — it was about the time needed to fully heal. He returned to the rotation after two months, but he said that to recover from that two-month gap and be fully ready to pitch, he needed three to four months.

Now, he sounds fully healthy. As spring training continues, Imanaga’s performance in exhibition games bears watching, as it could offer a glimpse into where he is physically as he prepares for 2026.

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