The Chicago Cubs are right in the thick of the NL Central race as of Thursday with a 25-19 record, and are a game-and-a-half behind the leaders, the Milwaukee Brewers.
A big reason behind their early success has been Shota Imanaga.
Whereas other pitchers got $100+ million contracts, Imanaga cost the Cubs a little over $50 million for four years, with the potential to extend the pact for another year.
The Japanese left-hander has proven to be worthy of the investment, and then some.
MLB published the ERA leaderboards, and Imanaga is right at the top.
These guys are not playing around. 😤
You can safely say that very few people expected any of the top-five pitchers in ERA to be among the best in MLB after a month-and-a-half.
These developments are what keeps the league fun and exciting, though.
Imanaga has rode a unique fastball profile (with “rise,” and thrown from a low release angle) to completely dominate MLB hitters.
So far, they just haven’t been able to adjust.
You can be sure of one thing, though: 46.2 innings of a 0.96 ERA and a 8/51 BB/K ratio seems pretty special to us.
He might not keep up this level of dominance, but Imanaga is sure helping the Cubs stay competitive and have a stable, effective rotation.
That wasn’t always the case in recent seasons.
When all is said and done, he is likely to finish the season with an ERA under 3.00 and lots of strikeouts and innings.
He has been much better than advertised, and the Cubs definitely got a steal.