Cubs’ Interest in Tatsuya Imai Very Real as They Survey Starting Pitching Market
With the Winter Meetings just days away, rumors are starting to heat up around the league. Over the last 24 hour or so, the Cubs have been linked again to both Alex Bregman and Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai. Cubs Insider has learned that the Cubs’ interest in Imai is very real, with the team expected to make a very serious push for the 27-year-old. As is the correct way of going about things, the Cubs are casting a wide net into the sea of talent this winter.
Mark Feinsand of MLB.com recently wrote about the top five starting pitchers available on the free agent market, naming the Cubs as potential suitors for four of them: Imai, Ranger Suárez, Michael King, and Zac Gallen. The key takeaway is that Jed Hoyer is indeed very actively seeking to add a starter. Whether a deal will be made is yet to be seen, but the goal of acquiring a front-end arm seems pretty clear.
King and Imai are not only the best two options of the four, but they also feel like the most likely. Both pitchers have been connected to the Cubs several times this winter, with the chatter picking up over recent days.
King only made 15 starts in 2025 due to injury, but still had an effective campaign with a 3.44 ERA and 1.20 WHIP. The former reliever can be a dominant force on the mound when fully healthy, though that hasn’t often been the case. In 2024 with the Padres, King had a 27.7% strikeout rate and was among the best in baseball in terms of average exit velocity (85.7 mph, 97th percentile) and hard-hit rate (30.3%, 99th). His ability to limit hard contact with one of the game’s best changeups would take the Cubs’ rotation to another level.
Coming off the best season of his career in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, Imai has a chance to become the next Japanese superstar to make the jump to MLB. There are some concerns about his pitch mix, but having velocity that can reach triple digits helps balance things out. Hoyer has made it a mission to grow the organization’s reputation among Japanese players, a strategy that has paid off with Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga. Imai could be the next piece to that puzzle.
Suárez and Gallen are both quality arms, but their appeal isn’t as strong as King and Imai. They’d be good additions to the roster, just more as fallback options rather than priority targets. The market has been moving faster so far this winter than in recent years, which is a sign that these upcoming Winter Meetings could be rather busy. And with Imai’s posting window closing on January 2, we know there will have to be at least one major signing in the next few weeks.
