MLB · P · Chicago Cubs
Shota Imanaga
B/T L/L · 5' 10" · 175 lb · born Kitakyushu, Japan · age 33 · played P 27 · MLB debut 2024-04-01
Last 14 days (through 2026-09-01): 2 G · 7.0 IP · 9.00 ERA · 8 SO · 2.29 WHIP
616 batters faced scored this season His season card →
Scout’s note
Shota Imanaga, a 32-year-old left-hander from Kitakyushu, Japan, has 416 strikeouts in 77 career starts since debuting on Opening Day 2024. He has fanned 12 in his last two starts, and he is the one pitcher here whose line simply speaks for itself.
Note written · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)
What he’s paid
ArbitrationA market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of .
- 2026 salary
- $22.02M
- Tax hit
- $22.02M
- Service time
- 2 yr 0 d
- Options left
- 3 / 3
The deal 1 year $22.0M (2026)
On the sheet: 1 y/$22.025M (26) · agent Octagon Yoshinori Hasegawa
After this season, as the sheet has it
| Season | 2027 |
|---|---|
| Cash | Free agent |
| Tax hit | — |
Regime flagged: the sheet's out-year codes read arbitration and 2.000 reads pre_arb. Kept the sheet's; Super Two and optional assignments move this line and the service boundary cannot see them.
Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Chicago Cubs.
A second set of books
The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of . We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.
- Tax AAV
- $22.0M
- Guaranteed
- $22.0M
- Term
- 1 yr
What the sheet prices each season at
| Season | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary | $22.0M |
A base salary under his own reading, and never subtracted from the cash figure above: a signing bonus lands in one and not the other, so the two disagree on most men without either being wrong. And the sheet does not mark which future seasons are GUARANTEED — a club option and a projected arbitration award are both just a number here, so read past the end of the deal as his forecast rather than as money owed.
Two sources, read a month apart, put this guarantee at the same dollar. That is the check, and it passed.
The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.
Collect Shota Imanaga
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Shota Imanaga cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.
Umpire favor
-2.1 net runs over 24 graded games — the zone cost the umpire more than it gave, on balance.
The line
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →