Shōta Imanaga Fell in Love with Chicago, Turned Down More Money to Sign with Cubs

Sometimes, maybe often times, things go your way with a bit of luck. In MLB free agency, teams can have strong interest in players and will be aggressive in their pursuit, offering a huge contract, but as we saw with the Cubs and Shohei Ohtani, that won’t mean much at the end if there isn’t mutual interest. Well, in the case of Shōta Imanaga, the Cubs were able to sign the Japanese free agent and it seems like one of the major reasons was because the pitcher fell in love with Chicago.

Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, wrote about Imanaga’s free agent process during the past few weeks and confirmed that the Cubs’ new starter has been in Chicago since Christmas. Imanaga is represented by Octagon that happens to have an office on Michigan Avenue and a network throughout the Chicago area.

Imanaga settled in and while his agency was negotiating with teams he realized that he wanted to stay.

Via The Athletic.

Imanaga felt so comfortable that he wanted to stay. He just wasn’t sure that the interest was mutual.

“Each team is different and it’s a long process,” Imanaga told The Athletic on Thursday through an interpreter. “One time I mentioned, ‘I hope the Cubs offer me.’ I was kind of joking just because at that time the Cubs were out of the picture.”

The Cubs have been linked to Imanaga for a long time and Jed Hoyer personally scouted the left-handed pitcher during a trip to Japan back in September. Yet, as we’ve seen the past few years, Hoyer’s regime is patient in free agency and won’t rush to make a big splash just to make a splash.

As Imanaga’s 45-day window to agree to a contract was quickly approaching the Cubs were thought to be a long shot destination for the 30-year-old. However, the Cubs didn’t panic and ultimately signed Imanaga to a four-year contract worth $53 million that also includes the option for the deal to be worth $80 million over five years.

Earlier this week, Jon Heyman was on 670 The Score and said that at least one other team offered Imanaga more than double of the guaranteed money he’ll get from the Cubs.

Imanaga first visited Chicago in November, before he was even posted by his Japanese team, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, and he might have fallen in love with the city the moment he heard Jim Cornelison bellowing out the anthem.

Shota Imanaga listened to the roar of the crowd during the national anthem, taking in the scene before one of Connor Bedard’s first home games with the Chicago Blackhawks. Imanaga later returned to the United Center to buy a Michael Jordan jersey and take a picture next to the iconic statue.

The Cubs signed Imanaga, but ultimately a team needs the player to have interest and it looks like Shōta chose the Cubs.