NEWSLETTER
Multiple reports have the Chicago Cubs’ deal with Japanese lefty Shota Imanaga as going official after a passed physical, though the team has not yet itself announced the deal. The tentative expectation is that the announcement will come today, and then a press conference will take place tomorrow – perhaps just ahead of Imanaga showing up at CubsCon, which begins Friday evening.
While we wait for things to go officially official, a fun nugget from Jesse Rogers’ write-up on the signing over at ESPN:
“The Pittsburgh Pirates also had some interest in Imanaga, according to sources, but ultimately the lefty chose Chicago, where he has been based since Christmas.”
The Pirates part is mildly interesting, since they hadn’t been among the publicly rumored suitors before the signing. But it’s the whole “he’s been in Chicago since Christmas” thing that caught my eye.
The implication there is that, when Imanaga came to the States after Christmas to set up shop and take meetings and throw for teams and all that, he was doing it while living in Chicago. AND NOBODY HEARD A PEEP! Once again demonstrating that clearly this front office knows how to keep things quiet if they want to.
Makes me wonder how much we really know about what else is cooking.
Hey, also? Good to know that a few weeks in Chicago’s winter didn’t turn Imanaga off from joining the Cubs (thanks for the unseasonably temperate stretch, Mother Nature!).
