Shota Imanaga — 2026 Season

2026 Season Stats

Pitching stats and MLB-wide rank · 2026 Season

Stat	2026	MLB Rank
ERA	3.77	—
WHIP	1.10	—
W	11	—
L	10	—
K	174	MLB #24
IP	174.1	—
SV	0	—
GS	32	—

2026 Season Highlights

As of 10/1, Shota Imanaga has remained a fixture in the Cubs' rotation, working deep into the season with a steady ERA and a heavier workload than a year ago. He has started nearly every turn, and while his win-loss record doesn't fully reflect how well he has pitched, his command has stayed sharp. He keeps free passes to a minimum and limits baserunners, though home runs allowed remain the main weakness. Compared with last season, he has covered noticeably more innings and piled up more strikeouts, cementing his role as a rotation anchor.

Shota Imanaga joined the Cubs in 2024 and quickly established himself as a dependable starter with his sharp slider and crafty pitch sequencing. His 2025 season was interrupted by injury, limiting him to 25 starts (9-8, 3.73 ERA). After becoming a free agent, he accepted the Cubs' qualifying offer (~$22 million) to return for 2026, aiming to bounce back to full strength. A 2023 WBC champion with Japan.

1He has held down a spot in the Cubs' rotation all season and logged far more innings than last year. His ERA has stayed steady and his knack for limiting walks remains intact.
2Pinpoint command is his biggest weapon, keeping baserunners to a minimum. A former NPB Best Nine selection and member of the 2023 WBC-winning team, he brings a wealth of experience from both Japan and the majors.
3The key to watch is whether he can curb the home runs he gives up. With more innings and strikeouts than last year, it will be interesting to see how far his growth since joining the Cubs in 2024 continues.

DETAIL · ANALYSIS

Detailed Analysis

In-depth metrics aggregated from every at-bat and pitch.

Data as of: 2026-11-08

Expand detailed analysis ▾

Recent Form (Last 10 Starts)

Older games on the left, most recent on the right. Color shows how they played. Regular season games only.

Best: 6IP+ / ≤1ER · Good: 5IP+ / ≤2ER · OK: 4IP+ / ≤3ER · 4ER · ≥5ER (blowup)

Pitch Arsenal

Current season pitch data by type. Velocity, spin rate, movement, whiff rate, and CSW% at a glance.

Pitch	Usage	Velo (mph)	Spin	H-Mvmt	V-Mvmt	Whiff%	CSW%
Four-Seam Fastball	40.2%	91.6	2,495	+6.9"	+10.1"	16.9%	24.8%
Splitter	34.5%	82.8	1,123	+7.0"	+3.3"	39.9%	30.8%
Sweeper	14.9%	81.1	2,548	-7.2"	-0.2"	28.2%	27.6%
Sinker	5.9%	90.2	2,459	+9.8"	+5.7"	17.0%	30.1%
Curveball	2.9%	74.5	2,513	-4.7"	-7.7"	15.8%	36.6%
Slider	1.5%	86.3	2,470	-1.2"	+4.5"	30.8%	27.9%

H-Mvmt/V-Mvmt (inch): movement vs. a spinless ball. + = toward 3B / up, − = toward 1B / down. Whiff% = whiffs / swings, CSW% = (called strikes + whiffs) / pitches.

Handedness & Home/Away Splits

Situational splits for the current season. See strengths and weaknesses by scenario.

vs Handedness

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
vs RHB	.235	.699	24	124	24
vs LHB	.229	.750	11	50	13

Home / Away

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
Home	.238	.713	21	109	24
Away	.225	.713	14	65	13

Year-over-Year Performance Trend

Career-long performance trends for every key stat. How does this year compare to history?

Season	G	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	BB/9	K
2024	29	173.1	2.91	1.02	9.03	1.45	174
2025	25	144.2	3.73	0.99	7.28	1.62	117
2026Now	32	174.1	3.77	1.10	8.98	1.91	174

Full Game Log (Pitching)

All 32 regular season games of 2026. Showing latest 10; click to expand.

Underlined dates and › open the game page (Dodgers games only)

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
09/28	@ BOS	1.0	1	1	0	3	9.00
09/23	vs MIA	5.0	4	1	0	7	1.80
09/17	vs ATL	6.0	4	1	0	8	1.50
09/12	vs PIT	6.0	5	2	2	4	3.00
09/05	@ MIA	6.0	3	1	0	4	1.50
08/31	vs CIN	5.0	8	6	1	4	10.80
08/24	@ SEA	2.0	5	1	2	4	4.50
08/18	vs CWS	6.0	2	3	3	10	4.50
08/12	@ WSH	4.2	6	4	0	5	7.71
08/06	vs LAD	5.0	8	1	0	6	1.80

SHOW REMAINING 22 GAMES ▾

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
08/01	vs NYY	6.2	4	2	0	6	2.70
07/26	@ PIT	6.0	4	0	1	4	0.00
07/20	vs MIN	7.0	6	0	1	4	0.00
07/11	@ CIN	5.0	7	1	1	5	1.80
07/05	vs STL	4.2	4	2	3	8	3.86
06/30	vs SD	6.1	9	2	0	4	2.84
06/25	@ NYM	5.1	4	4	1	4	6.75
06/16	vs COL	5.2	5	1	1	3	1.59
06/11	@ COL	5.0	2	0	2	7	0.00
06/05	vs OAK	6.0	6	6	1	5	9.00
05/30	@ STL	5.1	5	5	1	2	8.44
05/25	vs HOU	6.0	7	7	1	6	10.50
05/19	vs MIL	4.1	9	8	3	2	16.62
05/14	@ ATL	7.0	5	2	0	6	2.57
05/08	vs CIN	6.0	6	1	3	10	1.50
05/03	vs ARI	7.0	4	0	1	5	0.00
04/27	@ LAD	5.1	6	4	3	6	6.75
04/22	vs PHI	7.0	3	1	1	1	1.29
04/16	@ PHI	6.0	3	1	1	11	1.50
04/11	vs PIT	6.0	0	0	1	9	0.00
04/06	@ CLE	5.0	3	1	1	4	1.80
03/30	vs WSH	5.0	6	4	2	7	7.20

Year-over-Year (2026 vs 2025)

Green = improvement, red = decline. "—" means no data in the same month last year.

Pitching

	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
ERA	+6.38	-1.39	+2.62	+4.13	-2.79	+3.31	-4.26
K	+1	+7	+27	+20	+1	-3	+4
WHIP	+0.78	-0.50	+0.38	+0.69	+0.01	+0.86	-0.44

AI · SEASON ANALYSIS

Shota Imanaga 2026 Season AI Analysis

Comprehensive 2026 season analysis generated by Claude AI from stats data (as of Sep 28, 2026).

Overview

Imanaga's 2026 season sits almost exactly at MLB average across the board: ERA 3.77 vs avg 3.57 (below P50 of 3.73), WHIP 1.10 vs avg 1.18 (better than P50, roughly P75-adjacent), K/9 8.98 vs avg 8.94 (right at league median). None of his marks reach P75 territory, but none are alarming either. He is a solid mid-rotation arm by the numbers, not a front-line ace, with volume (174.1 IP over 32 starts) as his most notable asset this year.

Strengths

The clearest gain is durability and workload: 174.1 IP across 32 starts already exceeds his 2024 total (173.1 IP, 29 starts) and comfortably surpasses 2025 (144.2 IP, 25 starts), continuing his recovery from the shortened prior year. WHIP (1.10) is his best of the three seasons and sits ahead of the MLB average (1.18), reflecting solid baserunner control. Strikeout rate (8.98 K/9) also rebounded from 2025's dip (7.28) and is back near his 2024 level (9.03), with a career-high raw strikeout total of 174.

Areas to Improve

ERA (3.77) is essentially matched with the MLB P50 (3.73) but trails both the 2024 mark (2.91) and the league's better tier (P75 3.00, P90 2.53) by a wide margin, indicating more runs are scoring than his peripheral stats might suggest. Walk rate (1.91 BB/9) is actually excellent relative to the league (avg 2.75), so the ERA gap likely traces to contact quality or sequencing rather than command. Overall, he has not reclaimed the run-prevention level of his rookie 2024 campaign despite comparable innings.

Looking Ahead

With a full 32-start season already banked and a favorable BB/9 and WHIP profile, Imanaga's underlying skills support a stable finish rather than a breakout run. The gap between his peripheral numbers (WHIP, K/9, BB/9 all average-or-better) and his league-average ERA suggests the remaining games are a chance to see whether better contact management can pull his ERA back toward his 2024 form. Expect continued reliability as an innings-eating mid-rotation starter through the rest of the season, barring a mechanical or health change.

AI-generated content (Claude) · Based on stats as of Sep 28, 2026

Detailed Analysis

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Season Analysis

Season Progress

ERA

↓ Lower is better

WHIP

↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Monthly Stats

ERA

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

WHIP

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Season Analysis

Loading season chart…

Splits vs LHP / RHP

Season stats vs right-handed and left-handed batters

vs RHP/RHB

.235OPS .699 / HR 24

vs LHP/LHB

.229OPS .750 / HR 11

Metrics Deep Dive

MLB-wide percentile rank, defensive and pitching metric summaries, pitch-type stats, and batted-ball distribution.

Pitching — MLB-wide Standing

WHIP ranks in the top 31% of MLB. The rest sit closer to league average.

ERA3.77

WHIP1.10

strikeouts174

K/98.98

Bars show percentile rank among MLB-wide qualified players.

PITCHER · FIP

What is Shota Imanaga's FIP? 4.47 in 2026

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) measures a pitcher's true skill using only home runs, walks, hit-by-pitches and strikeouts — outcomes the pitcher controls. By stripping out defense and luck, it tracks real ability more closely than ERA.

Shota Imanaga's 2026 FIP is 4.47, rated as "below average". That's 0.47 above the MLB average of about 4.00, leaving room to improve.

Compare with other Japanese pitchers in the FIP ranking

Pitch Type K% & BA Against

K% / BA-against / Whiff% by pitch type this season. K% is based on at-bats where each type was the strikeout pitch.

Pitch	Usage	K%	BAA	Whiff%
Four-Seam Fastball	40.2%	21.5%	.323	16.9%
Splitter	34.5%	31.5%	.289	39.9%
Sweeper	14.9%	25.6%	.362	28.2%
Sinker	5.9%	9.4%	.333	17.0%
Curveball	2.9%	0.0%	.200	15.8%
Slider	1.5%	14.3%	.400	30.8%

K%: rate of strikeouts among plate appearances where this pitch type was the final pitch. Whiff%: whiffs per swing. Types with fewer than 10 pitches excluded.

Splits by Batter Handedness

BA / OPS against and WHIP vs right-handed and left-handed batters this season. Spot weaknesses by batter type.

Split	BAA	OPS	WHIP	K	IP
vs RHB	.235	.699	1.09	124	126.1
vs LHB	.229	.750	1.15	50	46.0

Game Log

2026 Season Appearance Log

32 starts · 174 total strikeouts

Season Best K

11K

Thu, Apr 16 @ PHI

Season Debut

Mon, Mar 30 vs WSH

5.0IP · 7K

Underlined dates and › open the game page (Dodgers games only)

Date	Opp	IP	K	HR	BB	Dec
9/28	@BOS	1.0	3	1	0	-
9/23	vsMIA	5.0	7	-	0	-
9/17	vsATL	6.0	8	-	0	W
9/12	vsPIT	6.0	4	1	2	W
9/5	@MIA	6.0	4	-	0	W
8/31	vsCIN	5.0	4	3	1	L
8/24	@SEA	2.0	4	1	2	-
8/18	vsCWS	6.0	10	1	3	-
8/12	@WSH	4.2	5	3	0	-
8/6	vsLAD	5.0	6	1	0	W
8/1	vsNYY	6.2	6	2	0	L
7/26	@PIT	6.0	4	-	1	W
7/20	vsMIN	7.0	4	-	1	W
7/11	@CIN	5.0	5	1	1	L
7/5	vsSTL	4.2	8	1	3	L
6/30	vsSD	6.1	4	-	0	-
6/25	@NYM	5.1	4	3	1	W
6/16	vsCOL	5.2	3	-	1	-
6/11	@COL	5.0	7	-	2	-
6/5	vsOAK	6.0	5	4	1	-
5/30	@STL	5.1	2	3	1	L
5/25	vsHOU	6.0	6	3	1	L
5/19	vsMIL	4.1	2	2	3	L
5/14	@ATL	7.0	6	1	0	L
5/8	vsCIN	6.0	10	1	3	W
5/3	vsARI	7.0	5	-	1	W
4/27	@LAD	5.1	6	-	3	L
4/22	vsPHI	7.0	1	1	1	W
4/16	@PHI	6.0	11	1	1	W
4/11	vsPIT	6.0	9	-	1	-
4/6	@CLE	5.0	4	-	1	-
3/30	vsWSH	5.0	7	1	2	L