Cubs still waiting on big off-season move after Imai signs with Astros

Posted January 01, 2026 2:02 pm

By Patrick Mooney

Throughout Tatsuya Imai’s posting process, league sources signaled that the Chicago Cubs wanted the Japanese pitcher on their terms.

Every organization hunts for good deals, trying to extract surplus value and create additional financial flexibility. But as a big-market franchise coming off its first playoff appearance in five years, the Cubs can seemingly take this patient, disciplined approach to an extreme.

If the baseball industry valued Imai as a potential ace this winter — The Athletic’s Tim Britton projected an eight-year, $190 million contract plus a $30 million posting fee at the start of the offseason — then the Cubs would almost certainly be heading in a different direction.

Or even when front offices saw Imai as more of a middle-of-the-rotation starter, and the price dropped toward that level.

Indeed, the Cubs are moving on after Imai’s decision to sign with the Houston Astros, reaching an agreement on a three-year contract that maxes out at $63 million and contains opt-out clauses after each season, The Athletic’s Chandler Rome reported Thursday.

The Cubs haven’t run out of options yet, not when several high-profile free agents are still unsigned and Opening Day is nearly three full months away.

Imai’s timeline created a different kind of pressure. Given the Jan. 2 deadline that marked the end of his 45-day negotiating window with major-league clubs, Imai had to execute an agreement and complete the medical review around New Year’s Day.

As the Cubs pivot, they can continue their dialogue with Imai’s agent, Scott Boras, who also represents Zac Gallen, a free agent who has been repeatedly linked to Chicago this offseason.

Although Gallen is coming off a down year (13-15, 4.83 ERA), he factored into the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2020, 2022 and 2023, when he helped lead the Arizona Diamondbacks into the World Series. Gallen’s durability — he averaged 30 starts a year over the past five seasons — is also appealing.

The Cubs have positioned themselves as the type of organization that likes to stay in various deal discussions, keeping its options open even after the start of spring training.

Of the top nine free agents on The Athletic’s Big Board, six have not yet reached agreements by the start of January — hitters Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman and Cody Bellinger — plus starting pitchers Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez.

The Cubs need another mainstay for a rotation that has multiple starting pitchers on expiring contracts, a group that includes Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd (who has a mutual 2027 option with the club).

More building blocks are required at a time when several everyday players — including Seiya Suzuki, Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ and Carson Kelly — are all eligible to become free agents after the 2026 season.

Signing Imai would have represented Chicago’s biggest offseason move thus far, as well as an extension of the organization’s efforts to become a destination for Japanese players.

The Cubs had already begun to compile a scouting report on Imai before Imanaga threw the first pitch of Major League Baseball’s 2025 season inside the Tokyo Dome. Internally, that Tokyo Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers was seen as a showcase for the club, an outgrowth of its international investments.

In establishing relationships and making connections abroad, the Cubs wanted to be in a position to acquire more Japanese talent. Team officials believed they had learned from their experiences with Suzuki and Imanaga, allowing them to offer the right support systems to help future players transition from Nippon Professional Baseball.

While having that history and infrastructure can be viewed as a competitive advantage, the Cubs also exercise restraint in these evaluations, and they do not spend money like the Dodgers.

Imai kept an open mind about his future, expressing a desire for a new challenge. Teaming up with fellow Japanese players was not necessarily a top priority.

At the age of 27, Imai should be entering the prime years of his career. While unproven at the sport’s highest level, he offers an intriguing combination of high-end velocity, a varied pitch mix and the know-how from nearly a decade with the Saitama Seibu Lions.

Whatever reservations that evaluators may have about Imai’s game — how his fastball will play against major-league hitters, what the learning curve will look like and when the stuff will all come together — the bottom line is the Cubs simply don’t have many pitchers in their organization with this kind of talent and upside.