TOKYO – Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga was the last player on the field Sunday before the Cubs’ exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants, as he finished up a workout in left field. But because he was still there, so were dozens of local reporters.
Imanaga’s presence has been felt in the days leading up to the season opener against the Dodgers, even though he has yet to play.
He and Seiya Suzuki took the press conference podium Friday before the team’s workout, facing a ballroom full of media members at the Tokyo Dome Hotel. He was included in the lineup announcements for both exhibition games even though he wasn’t starting.
On Tuesday, Imanaga, the Cubs’ Opening Day starter, will step the rest of the way into the spotlight.
“Just feels like a dream,” he said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry before leaving for Tokyo. “The same way when I was a kid and watching the [MLB] players play in Japan, I’m hoping the kids now in Japan who can watch that, they’ll feel the same way.”
Imanaga pitching in the Tokyo Series set up another full-circle kind of moment. Now on an American team playing in Japan, Imanaga two years ago was on Team Japan starting in the World Baseball Classic championship in Miami.
He faced a staunch Team USA lineup, with Dodgers star Mookie Betts in the leadoff spot. Plenty of MLB teams were paying attention when Imanaga took the ball, anticipating his move to MLB. The Cubs were one of them.
“I wouldn’t say I was really focused on that,” Imanaga said. “In the moment, I was just focusing on the game and seeing great players.”
He pitched two innings and held Team USA to one run, on a solo homer from Trea Turner.
That title game infamously ended with superstar Shohei Ohtani taking the mound to close the game and striking out his Angles teammate Mike Trout to secure the 3-2 win for Team Japan.
As much attention as Imanga has drawn this week, it pales in comparison to Ohtani mania.
“Just a wonderful person in general,” Imanaga said of Ohtani. “You don’t really get to meet people like that. But regardless if it was a younger teammate or an older teammate, he respected everybody.”
The WBC led into a healthy Nippon Professional Baseball season for Imanaga, after which he was posted for MLB.
“It was a great experience,” Imanaga said of his eight seasons with NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars. “As the years went on, my job and my standard of what I needed to do got higher and higher. So that was great.”
He raised that standard again in his rookie MLB season, making the transition look easy as he finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting and fifth for Cy Young.
“With great players, we get greedy and we want more, more, more,” manager Craig Counsell said Sunday. “What Shota did last year was very, very hard to do. You do that again, and you put together another great season.”
As part of that great first season, Imanaga faced Ohtani for the first time last April, striking him out in a nine-pitch battle. They’ve gone head-to-head five times in all, and Ohtani has yet to reach base against Imanaga.
They’re set up to face off again Tuesday, for the first time in their home country.
“A fantastic player on a fantastic team,” Imanaga said. “They’re going to be a formidable opponent, but I’m going to try my best to keep it scoreless.”
With Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound for the Dodgers, it will also be the first matchup between two Japanese-born starting pitchers in MLB Opening Day history.
