CHICAGO — Despite the Chicago Cubs starting a seven-game homestand off on a high note by defeating the Oakland Athletics 9-2 on Monday, it’s hard to look at this season without considering 2025. With 12 games to go and the Cubs still five games out of a playoff spot, going into next season with higher aspirations and a better ending has to be the only goal.
With that in mind, here are three takeaways with a look toward the future.
Shota Imanaga answering every question
Imanaga seemed to gain the trust of manager Craig Counsell pretty early in his big-league career. The lefty may be a rookie in MLB terms, but he’s a 31-year-old veteran who has pitched at a high level for many years. Still, some wondered how his stuff would translate from the NPB.
“I think there’s a lot of superlatives about how Shota’s handled” his first season, Counsell said. “I’m trying to think of something he hasn’t handled well. I don’t know if I can think of anything. He’s passed every test or question that we’ve tried to ask about him. But I think at the base of it, what Shota’s good at works. It works.”
Imanaga has excelled in the areas that the Cubs expected. He limits walks, pounds the zone and the stuff still manages to work despite being in the zone so frequently. He’ll give up the occasional home run, sure, but because of the lack of walks and other base hits, that doesn’t hurt him as much as it may others.
But Counsell did bring up one final question that some may have.
“As we sit here today, one of the questions is maybe how is the major-league schedule going to go for Shota?” Counsell said. “In terms of pitching on different days’ rest, the innings that he’s thrown this year, that’s maybe the final part of the season test for him. Pitching some of his best baseball in September, I think he’s showing us that. That’s been awesome as well.”
You had to see The Sho. pic.twitter.com/L93ehstEqf
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 17, 2024
With six innings of two-run ball Monday, Imanaga has a 3.03 ERA on the season and has given up just five runs in 20 innings this month. He’s also tossed 166 1/3 innings on the season, approaching his previous career high in Japan of 170 innings, done five years ago. When it comes to pitching on four days’ rest, which Imanaga wasn’t accustomed to in Japan, he’s done so six times and has a 1.74 ERA in 41 1/3 innings.
After one season in the big leagues, Imanaga is proving to be one of the better signings of the Jed Hoyer era and is the favorite to be the Opening Day starter next season when the Cubs kick things off in Japan against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Michael Busch keeps battling back
With every cold stretch Busch has had this season, questions about whether he’s hit a wall or whether the league has figured him out have followed. But Busch continues to produce after every mini-slump.
“That’s being a major-league hitter,” Counsell said. “If you want to play in this league for a long time, that’s what the league requires you to do and forces you to do, to continue to make adjustments. I always think the players that play for a long time don’t get credit enough for making adjustments. You think, ‘Oh, they’re just good.’ They’re making adjustments.”
The chart above shows how Busch has responded to every downstretch with solid offensive performance. The good has largely outweighed any negative from Busch this season at the plate. Entering play Monday, Busch was tied for fifth among first basemen in wRC+ (123) and seventh in fWAR (2.6).
“That’s what the hitter is required to do,” Counsell said. “Maybe a little hole develops and you have to cover up that hole or minimize it. When you get pitches you can hit, you gotta hit ’em. The hitters go through stretches where they’re missing some pitches. But in the end, the consistency of what Michael has done has really shown up.”
Nate Pearson taking steps forward
When the Cubs acquired Pearson from the Toronto Blue Jays a little before the trade deadline, they knew he had stuff. But the former top prospect had yet to translate that into results at the highest level. In 21 innings with the Cubs, he’s made some tweaks that have helped lead to a 2.57 ERA.
The first has been that Pearson is using his slider more against lefties. Since the start of the 2023 season up to the time he was traded from Toronto, Pearson used his slider against lefties just 16.4 percent of the time. Since being traded to the Cubs, he’s used it 38.9 percent of the time.
“By doing that I don’t back myself into a corner against lefties where I have to throw a heater in a heater count,” Pearson said. “I can go to the slider whenever I want. It’s a little more unpredictability against lefties and I think it helps out so they’re not sitting on one pitch.”
The other change Pearson has made is that he’s moved from the third-base side of the rubber to the first-base side. That’s helped him drop his walk rate. With the Blue Jays, it was 9.3 percent. So far with the Cubs it’s just 2.6 percent.
“I think it was causing me to yank fastballs more and I was struggling to get in the zone,” Pearson said. “When I switched over to the first-base side it feels like it lets my pitches play more in the zone. It’s a small tweak that’s helped out.”
The one remaining issue is Pearson is still giving up a lot of hard contact. So far with the Cubs the hard-hit balls are finding gloves, but the fact that he’s avoided the free passes by being around the zone more with his fastball has allowed him largely to thrive. There are likely more steps to be taken before Pearson really establishes himself as a trusted reliever, but in just six weeks he’s already made great strides. The hope is an offseason of work will only lead to more success.
(Photo of Shota Imanaga: David Banks / Imagn Images)
