Players · I · Pitcher · 2026 regular season
Shota Imanaga
- Age
- 33
- B/T
- L/L
- Height
- 5' 10"
- Weight
- 175 lb
- Number
- #18
- Born
- September 1, 1993 in Kitakyushu, Japan
- MLB debut
- April 1, 2024
- Salary, 2026
- $22M
- dbWAR
- 4.6 Regular season, 3 season(s)
- IP
- 174.1
- ERA
- 3.77
- FIP
- 4.47
- K/9
- 9.0
- FIP−
- 107 100 = avg
Shota Imanaga is a starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. In 2026 he struck out 174 batters over 174.1 innings across 32 appearances, 32 of them starts, going 11-10. His ERA of 3.77 was 9.9% lower than the league average of 4.18 — 8th of 16 on his team, and 220th of 539 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.47 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 30.0% of swings (15.5% of every pitch he threw), walked 5.2% of the batters he faced and struck out 24.6%. His 1.6 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.
League context
Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2026 regular season.
WAR by season
Pitching Regular season
Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below.
Separate from the regular season
Postseason Postseason
Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.
Postseason pitching
| Season | Team | Round | G | GS | IP | W | L | SV | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP | K/9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Post | CHC | Postseason total | 2 | 1 | 6.2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 8.10 | 1.50 | 8.1 |
| Wild Card | 1 | 0 | 4.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.50 | 1.25 | 6.8 | ||
| NLDS | 1 | 1 | 2.2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 13.50 | 1.88 | 10.1 |
Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.
Platoon splits
How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHB | 192 | 175 | 40 | 11 | 13 | 50 | .229 | .293 | .457 | .326 | 26.0% |
| vs RHB | 514 | 485 | 114 | 24 | 24 | 124 | .235 | .276 | .423 | .304 | 24.1% |
Pitch sequencing
What Shota Imanaga throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.
Select a count to see exactly what Shota Imanaga throws in it.
Pitch arsenal
What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.
| Four-Seam Fastball | 1,128 | 91.6 | 2,496 | 48.0% | 20.1% | 249 | .249 | .786 | |
| Splitter | 970 | 82.8 | 1,123 | 48.8% | 41.4% | 267 | .195 | .554 | |
| Sweeper | 411 | 81.0 | 2,549 | 46.7% | 30.3% | 78 | .256 | .859 | |
| Sinker | 166 | 90.2 | 2,459 | 44.6% | 17.0% | 54 | .296 | .909 | |
| Curveball | 81 | 74.4 | 2,512 | 49.4% | 15.8% | 5 | — | — | |
| Slider | 54 | 86.4 | 2,476 | 53.7% | 30.0% | 9 | — | — |
Compare Shota Imanaga with…
Side by side with up to three others.
Or read one already written — Shota Imanaga against:
- Ben Brown2026 Chicago Cubs
- Gerrit Colesimilar 2026 seasons
- Matthew Boyd2026 Chicago Cubs
- Nathan Eovaldisimilar 2026 seasons
- Bryce Millersimilar 2026 seasons
- Emmet Sheehansimilar 2026 seasons
- Jameson Taillonsimilar 2025 seasons
- Shane Biebersimilar 2025 seasons
- Zack Littellsimilar 2025 seasons
- Hayden Wesneskisimilar 2025 seasons
- Tyler Wellssimilar 2025 seasons
Similar players
Nearest 2026 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.