Shōta Imanaga

Shōta Imanaga (今永 昇太), nicknamed "The Throwing Philosopher", is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He has previously played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.

The Yokohama DeNA BayStars selected Imanaga in the first round of the 2015 NPB draft out of Komazawa University.

Imanaga signed with the Canberra Cavalry of the Australian Baseball League to play weeks 2-7 of the 2018–19 Australian Baseball League season In his six starts for the Cavalry, he posted a 4–0 win–loss record with a league best 0.51 earned run average (ERA) over 35 innings pitched with 57 strikeouts to one walk.

By meeting the statistical recognition minimum (0.8IP per team game), Imanaga broke the league records for WHIP (0.429), H/9 (3.6), BB/9 (0.3) and second best ERA behind Ryan Searle.

Following his ABL stint, Imanaga posted a 13–7 2.91 ERA, 2019 Nippon Professional Baseball season, finishing second in wins and strikeouts only behind Shun Yamaguchi in the Central League.

On June 7, 2022, Imanaga pitched a no-hitter against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

On September 6, 2023, Yokohama announced that they would post Imanaga to Major League Baseball (MLB) following the 2023 season.

On January 11, 2024, Imanaga signed a four-year, $53 million contract with the Chicago Cubs that also contained a fifth-year option.

Imanaga represented the Japan national baseball team in the 2019 exhibition games against Mexico and 2019 WBSC Premier12.

Imanaga played for the Japanese national team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and started the championship game in which Japan won 3-2.

Imanaga is a 5 ft. 10 in., 190 lb. left-handed pitcher.

He has a fastball averaging nearly 92 mph (tops out at 96 mph ), changeup, curveball and slider in his repertoire.

He is not an overpowering hurler but finds success with his command and changeup.