In spring debut, Imanaga already seeing encouraging uptick in velocity

MESA, Ariz. -- There was a significantly larger crowd of Japanese media gathered around Cubs starter Shota Imanaga after his spring debut on Tuesday afternoon. With so many of MLB’s Japanese stars en route to Tokyo for the World Baseball Classic, Imanaga found himself in front of reporters who had been covering other camps.

Back in 2023, Imanaga took the ball in the gold-medal game for Samurai Japan’s dramatic win over Team USA in the Classic. This year, the lefty opted to remain behind with the Cubs to focus on his delivery and training ahead of an important comeback season for a Chicago team with World Series aspirations.

“Obviously, Team Japan has fantastic players,” Imanaga said via interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “From the Cubs, we have Seiya [Suzuki] out there. I think the most important thing is everybody stays healthy. And if they can win the whole thing, I’ll be rooting them on.”

For his part in Tuesday’s 6-5 win over the Padres, Imanaga worked two shutout innings, finishing with one strikeout, no walks and three hits. The left-hander logged 33 pitches, generating four whiffs out of the 19 swings from San Diego’s hitters. Imanaga featured his signature fastball-splitter combination, mixing in a sweeper and curve, too.

Most notably, Imanaga’s fastball velocity was 93 mph on average, per Statcast. That was 2.2 mph higher than his 2025 season average of 90.8 mph. And last year’s showing was down from 91.7 mph in his standout rookie campaign in ‘24. While Imanaga relies more on command and deception, the early radar gun readings are a positive sign.

“I want to preface it by saying, for me, velo isn’t everything,” Imanaga said. “But obviously, having velocity is an advantage. So, I feel like today out there, it felt like the velo was up. Overall, my takeaway was that it was a good start.”

One of Imanaga’s primary goals over the offseason and throughout this spring has been to get his lower-half strength back to where it was prior to his hamstring injury in May. That setback played a role in his second-half struggles, as the lefty fought some subtle delivery issues over the final few months.

Imanaga felt Tuesday’s outing showed that his work behind the scenes is taking hold.

“Physically, I felt great out there,” he said. “All that work that I put in to build up to that, I feel like that was displayed today. I think overall, it was a good day.”

While Imanaga had a tough ending to last season, Cubs manager Craig Counsell has remained optimistic about the pitcher’s ability to bounce back in a big way this year.

“I thought Shota was in a great place [going into the offseason],”Counsell said. “I was really happy with how he left and very confident that he would put himself in a very good position, and he was ready to do that.”

CONFORTO IN CAMP
While the Cubs have not yet officially announced the signing of outfielder Michael Conforto to a Minor League contract (plus a non-roster invite), he was in team gear and went through a normal workout day at the team’s complex on Tuesday morning.

Counsell noted that Conforto would spend the next few days going through workouts, but could get into a Cactus League game by Saturday or Sunday. With Pete Crow-Armstrong (Team USA) and Suzuki (Japan) headed to the World Baseball Classic, the Cubs will have more at-bats to offer to players in the backup outfield mix: Conforto, along with Kevin Alcántara, Justin Dean, Chas McCormick and Dylan Carlson.

“I wish those guys were here in one sense,” Counsell said about Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki. “But it creates opportunity for other people.”

LONG IMPROVING
First baseman Jonathon Long (Pipeline’s No. 6 Cubs prospect at the end of 2025) added some more light baseball activity to his day on Tuesday, following the left elbow sprain he sustained in Saturday’s game. Long, who is slated to play for Chinese Taipei, has pushed his travel back to Friday for the World Baseball Classic to continue testing his elbow in the coming days.

“He’s doing much better,” Counsell said. “No issue with X-rays or anything like that. The soreness is dissipating. Still a little residual soreness, but it’s the kind that’s improving every day. Took some swings today.”

QUOTABLE
“We sat down with him this morning. I thought Michael laid it out really well, kind of where he’s at. He’s in a good place. You learn from all your experiences and it puts you in a good place. You have uncertainty when you come to camp on a non-roster deal, and I think he’s in a position to use that uncertainty in a really good way.” – Counsell, on Conforto