New Chicago Cubs acquisition Shota Imanaga’s deal was well timed. With the announcement of his signing, he was able to appear with Cubs leadership at the Cubs Convention on Friday in Chicago.
The 30-year-old Japanese left-hander sought to ingratiate himself to Cubs fans immediately.
With his interpreter on one side and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer on the other, Imanaga wore his Cubs jersey and hat at the podium in front of media and Cubs fans gathered for the first day of the event.
Imanaga did something that Cubs fans probably weren’t expecting. He spoke in English. And not just that. Imanaga channeled words of the Steve Goodman song “Go, Cubs Go.”
Cubs fans, obviously, ate it up.
“Hey, Chicago,” he said.
“What do you say?” he continued. “The Cubs Gonna Win Today.”
Imanaga’s appearance comes on the heels of reports that he’s actually been in Chicago for a few weeks, flying under the radar while his agent and the team worked out his new contract.
If so, it’s clear that Chicago was where he wanted to be all along. He also made it clear he’s been paying attention to the Cubs.
He chose No. 18 for his jersey, a number that recently belonged to Ben Zobrist, who was part of the Cubs’ 2016 World Series team. He told reporters he had a specific reason for choosing that number.
“I was looking through Chicago and Cubs history, I saw that was the number that Ben Zobrist wore and I wanted to be the player he was too,” Imanaga said.
His signing likely rounds out the Cubs’ starting rotation for 2024 and put an end to the frustration of Cubs fans that watched their team spend nothing in free agency.
With the Yokohama Bay Stars, Imanaga threw more than 1,000 innings and went 64-50 with a 3.18 ERA in 165 games. HE struck out 1,021 and walked just 280. He threw a no-hitter in 2022.
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