Shōta Imanaga Starting for I-Cubs Friday

Shōta Imanaga has been out since injuring his hamstring on May 4 in Milwaukee, but he is nearing a return. The lefty has made two rehab starts in the Arizona Complex League, going six total innings with no runs allowed on four hits. He struck out eight batters with no walks, and got in extra work in the bullpen after each outing. He showed no ill effects from throwing in 105-degree temps in his latest start, paving the way for a move up the ladder.

The Cubs feel good enough about his progress to skip over other low levels of the minors and bump Imanaga straight to Triple-A Iowa. He will start for the I-Cubs on Friday and could rejoin the big club in St. Louis when they take on the Cardinals for the first time this season. Craig Counsell has not yet named any of his starters for the weekend series against the Mariners, but maintaining the same schedule would see Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd, and Colin Rea taking the bump.

If they keep Imanaga on regular rest, he could possibly take the Wednesday start in St. Louis that would otherwise have gone to Horton. That doesn’t mean the Cubs would look to send the rookie back to Iowa, just that they’d push him back a day. The most likely rotation casualties are Colin Rea and Ben Brown, with the former being more consistent and the latter having a much higher ceiling.

We’ll just have to wait and see how Imanaga’s rehab outing goes and whether the Cubs want to stretch him out further in the minors before activating him.