CHICAGO -- Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy went through the video of Shota Imanaga’s latest Minor League rehab outing and liked what he saw, especially given the environment that the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League presents. It is a far cry from working in a big league setting.
Pitching in the Arizona heat and against young hitters who love to take aggressive swings when a Major League arm is on the mound, Imanaga logged four shutout innings on Saturday in his second rehab start. The next stop will be Triple-A Iowa and it is possible a return to the Cubs’ rotation looms beyond that for Imanaga.
“We just need to really evaluate,” Hottovy said, “now that he’ll be in the first, I would say, a higher-intent, bigger environment with a little tougher competition, to see where he’s at. We’re not ruling out that he wouldn’t be ready after this next outing. But really, we just need to see how he’s recovering and how the stuff looks in a longer outing.”
The current plan calls for Imanaga -- on the 15-day injured list due to a left hamstring injury -- to stay in Arizona this week to continue his between-start routine, including a mound session. If everything goes well, the lefty would likely then make his next start on Friday with Iowa in Nashville.
From there, Imanaga could either continue his rehab with Iowa to keep building up his pitch count or be reintroduced into Chicago’s rotation. The way the schedule is mapped out, the 31-year-old left-hander might be lined up to make his first start back with the Cubs on June 25 or 26 in St. Louis.
“Obviously we need to evaluate where he’s at first,” Hottovy said. “And then we’ll figure out the logistics of getting him back. But I do think it’s more important to do what’s best for him, make sure he looks good and is recovering and feeling good.”
Between game action and post-outing throwing in the bullpen, Imanaga threw 55 pitches on Saturday after logging around 40 in his previous rehab start for the ACL Cubs on June 9. In those two games combined, the Cubs lefty struck out eight with no walks and four hits scattered in six shutout innings.
The box score totals are less important than the underlying performance for Imanaga, who sustained his hamstring injury while running to cover first base on May 4 in Milwaukee. Hottovy said he was encouraged by Imanaga’s consistency with his fastball and splitter throughout the latest appearance.
“The stuff looked good,” Hottovy said. “The velo started trending up as the outing kind of played out. It’s good to see him getting the ups and still being consistent with stuff and velocity. It was good. Split looked good. The fastball shape looks like it’s continued to trend and get better. All in all positives, and kind of what we want to see in these first two outings out there.”
Prior to the injury, Imanaga had a 2.82 ERA with 34 strikeouts and 14 walks in 44 2/3 innings, putting him on a path to a strong follow-up campaign to his breakout rookie season in ‘24. And given that the setback did not involve Imanaga’s throwing arm, Hottovy believes there is potential for the pitcher to pick up where he left off in May.
What the Cubs will have to solve is how to handle the rest of the rotation when Imanaga does rejoin the cast. Behind veterans Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon, Chicago has used Ben Brown, Colin Rea and rookie Cade Horton to fill out the rest of the staff. Part of the equation could include easing Imanaga back into the mix, as he ramps up his workload again.
“There’s a lot of factors at play,” Hottovy said. “You want to make sure you give guys rest when you feel like they need rest. You also don’t want to over-extend [any starters or relievers]. … We’ll have a lot of conversations about how we want to go about doing that.
“For right now, it’s just focusing on what he needs to do to get ready for this next outing, and kind of see where we’re at after the next one.”