Cubs’ Shōta Imanaga Update: Will He Face Cardinals This Week?

The St. Louis Cardinals are set to begin arguably the most important series of the season to this point on Monday night against the Chicago Cubs and it sounds like they could end up facing one of the top pitchers in the National League.

Cubs pitcher Shōta Imanaga hasn't taken the mound in the big leagues since May 4th as he has dealt with a hamstring injury. He has been working his way back up in the minors and The Athletic's Sahadev Sharma shared that the current expectation is that he will return vs. St. Louis.

"The Cubs are on the verge of getting a much-needed reinforcement to their rotation," Sharma said. "Lefty Shota Imanaga made his third rehab start on Friday night with the Iowa Cubs and is expected to join the big-league club at some point next week during Chicago’s four-game series in St. Louis against the Cardinals...

"The Cubs have generally preferred to keep Imanaga on five days’ rest, so starting the finale in St. Louis on Thursday could make sense. After two outings in the Complex League, Imanaga tossed 4 1/3 shutout innings at Triple A on Friday evening, striking out eight and walking two while giving up just two hits. He didn’t allow a run during his rehab stint and generally has looked strong."

The Athletic's Katie Woo also confirmed that Imanaga is "likely" to return vs. the Cardinals.

"Neither team has set their rotation through the series, but expect Michael McGreevy to take a spot start (likely Tues) for St. Louis and for Shōta Imanaga to be activated off the IL (hamstring strain/likely Wed or Thurs) for Chicago," Woo said. "

The four-game set was already going to be tough, but it's getting even more difficult.