Maybe Shōta Imanaga’s Rapidly Closing Window Will Jumpstart Cubs’ Activity

There’s an old saying I’m all too fond of that says you can wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up faster. Cubs fans are empty-handed to this point in the offseason and there’s a growing fear that they may be left with a serious hygiene issue once the front office finally does make a deal or three. The latest dose of faith fiber comes in the form of Shōta Imanaga, whose posting window closes on January 11.

Aaron Nola wasn’t leaving Philly and Yoshinobu Yamamoto‘s record deal with the Dodgers blew up the curve on the starting pitching market, which currently sees two Scott Boras clients at the top. Imanaga came into the winter as MLB Trade Rumors’ 10th-ranked overall free agent and fifth-ranked starter, not counting Shohei Ohtani, so this could be a situation where everyone’s waiting to see what happens over the next week.

The general consensus is that Imanaga will get a deal of $100 million or more, which is woefully short of Yamamoto but well ahead of the $75 million Kodai Senga got from the Mets last year. That would also be much less than either Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery are expected to earn, so teams in the mix for starters are weighing value while Boras is probably trying to sell them on some measure of certainty.

The Cubs should be firmly in the center of the Venn diagram featuring all three southpaws, which could help to explain a measure of their reluctance to make any moves thus far. Much like prospectnik and former Bleacher Nation writer Bryan Smith tweeted in late December, I get the sense that Jed Hoyer is still trying to thread the needle by “sequencing his moves very specifically.” That’s been his MO since before Theo Epstein handed him the reins and it seems to have become even more the case once he ascended to the top spot in baseball ops.

We’re not just talking about pitching, as this strategy could extend to a series of moves that would see the Cubs trading for Pete Alonso before signing Cody Bellinger (both also Boras clients). Or maybe it’s signing Bellinger before Rhys Hoskins (you guessed it), and then looking to add pitchers to aid the upgraded offense. Bringing back their former star feels like a big domino one way or the other, largely because his agent is so integral here.

Which brings us back to Imanaga, who isn’t tangled up in that same agency web and might be the only one of the Cubs’ presumed targets whose pursuit doesn’t involve such meticulous timing. Then again, he might not even be among those targets at this point. Though little of substance has been reported about Imanaga’s market, the latest from Jeff Passan makes no mention of the North Siders while listing seven other interested parties.

Is it weird that their absence from that group actually makes me more confident in the possibility that the Cubs could still be in the mix? Maybe that’s just another sanguine suppository.

Whatever ends up happening with the Cubs specifically, and I do think they’ll do something ahead of Cubs Convention, circumstances alone dictate that the pace will pick up after next week. In addition to Imanaga’s decision setting the bar for those other pitchers, we’ll be barely over a month from pitchers and catchers reporting. I’d tell you to keep your fingers crossed for the Cubs to finally get moving, but that’d prevent you from keeping your hands open.