Shota Imanaga’s notable start in 2026 compared to 2025

Cubs starter Shota Imanaga threw another gem on Saturday afternoon, tossing seven shutout innings against the Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field. Imanaga improved his season ERA to 2.40 in seven starts (41.1 IP).

Imanaga has looked much sharper than he did post-hamstring injury last year. It is worth noting that he posted a 2.77 ERA over his first seven starts in 2025, before pitching to a 4.09 ERA the rest of the season (18 games). However, the quality of what Imanaga is doing now is still notably better than his start to 2025, despite the fairly similar ERA.

Imanaga is much crisper to start 2026

While the results were good for Imanaga over his first seven starts last year, the underlying numbers tell a different story.

The 2.77 ERA over his first seven starts in 2025 came with a 4.93 FIP, 6.9 K/9, 30 strikeouts, and seven homers surrendered in 39 innings. Compare those to Imanaga’s 2.40 ERA over his first seven starts this year, which includes a 2.73 FIP, 9.4 K/9, 43 strikeouts, and three homers surrendered in 41.1 innings.

Shōta Imanaga, Dirty 84mph Splitter. ✌️

5th K thru 5 pic.twitter.com/y7jLv3l6xF

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 2, 2026

Whiffs are such a bit part of this story, as well as cutting the home runs in half over this compared sample size. His stuff has looked crisper and has been much more efficient in preventing the ball from being put in play vs. last year. Looking back at those starts early in 2025, it’s easy to see where he was more “grindy” than dominant.

Keeping it going

Imanaga is such an important piece to this rotation now. A fully healthy rotation with Cade Horton and Justin Steele would have him as a mid-rotation starter. With Horton done for the year, Steele not being back until after the All Star break, and Matthew Boyd struggling, Imanaga is now arguably seen as the top guy in the rotation.

With the uncertainty regarding how Imanaga would bounce back, and Horton being part of the equation, this was a very different outlook in Spring. Even with knowing that Steele was not going to be ready to start 2026. The outlook of Boyd, Horton, and Cabrera above, with more available depth at the time, made Imanaga’s value feel different.

While there will inevitably be some bad starts with flyballs leaving the park at will, having this type of stuff from Imanaga will go a much longer way than many may have thought heading into this season.

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