Chicago Cubs: Answer to rotation questions may already be on staff

The Chicago Cubs are facing a major starting pitching dilemma, not just for the rest of the 2026 season, but also for next year and beyond.

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This season, the issues are pretty obvious. The team lost emerging ace Cade Horton to an elbow injury in just his second start of the year. He’ll be out for the rest of this season and well into the next after surgery. Opening Day starter Matthew Boyd went on the IL right after Horton, suffering from a left biceps strain. Injured ace Justin Steele, meanwhile, is coming back from his own elbow surgery last year and is probably still about two months away from even considering a full-time return to the mound.

Next season, though, there are arguably even bigger issues awaiting the Cubs.

Boyd, Jameson Taillon, and Shota Imanaga will all be eligible for free agency at the end of the 2026 baseball year. There will also be plenty of uncertainty regarding Horton’s ability to rebound. Top pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins, who was expected to maybe reach the majors at the very end of this year and put in a serious bid for a rotation spot next year, was just put on the shelf with arm issues in Iowa, thereby slowing his development in the present tense.

In a worst case scenario, all of this means that Chicago would have question marks in at least four of the five rotation spots headed into next season.

That’s not good.

The answer could be right in front of them

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However, the answer to at least some of the Cubs’ starting pitching problems, both this year and next, could already be in the rotation—Shota Imanaga.

The 32-year-old Japanese import has been absolutely killing it so far this season, posting a 2.45 ERA through four starts. His velocity is up, his stuff is crisp, and his strike out/whiff rates are way up.

After a down 2025, Imanaga came into this season working on a one-year qualifying offer and was considered almost an afterthought in the rotation. The general consensus seemed to be that the Cubs would be happy with whatever they got from the lefty.

As of this early date in the year, he’s actually the best starter on the staff and, with the total loss of Horton and the temporary loss of Boyd, his presence has been indispensable. Having a fully-actualized version of Imanaga throwing every fifth day will help the team immensely as they get deeper into the season and certain deficiencies and question marks begin to pop up.

Bringing Shota Imanaga back

Finding a way to re-sign that same fully-actualized Imanaga will also go a long way towards helping ease next year’s impending rotation doubts.

Jordan Campbell of Cubbies Crib echoes those thoughts and insists that keeping Imanaga a Cub should be a priority for Cubs president Jed Hoyer and the front office.

Per Campbell:

“He has an ERA of 2.45 while striking out over 37% of the hitters he faced. His fastball velocity is up to 92.2 MPH, and his Baseball Savant page is dripping red for his whiff rate and chase rate.

This current version of Imanaga is better than any version the Cubs have had in past years. So good that with Horton now out until the second half of the 2027 season, finding a way to keep Imanaga in Chicago beyond this season needs to be the priority.”

Imanaga’s 2025 struggles—with injury early in the season and ineffectiveness later in the year—led to the Cubs making some tough contract-related decisions with him.

They declined their three-year, $57.75 million club option on him, which led to Imanaga declining his $15.25 million player option for 2026. Rather than wade into free agency, Imanaga instead accepted the Cubs qualifying offer of $22 million for the 2026 season.

The question will be whether that contract tussle created any bad blood that could affect another deal from being made. Both sides have said that there is no bad blood, but that’s just what they’re saying publicly.

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Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-shota-imanaga-resigning-free-agency-horton-boyd-taillon/