MESA, Ariz. — Old Man Winter has its icy grip on Chicagoland this week, but here’s a warm reminder that summer is inching closer: Cubs pitchers and catchers reported to camp Monday.
As spring training gets underway, the goal for the 2025 Cubs is simple: Make the postseason for the first time in a non-COVID-shortened season since 2018 and for the first time in any season since 2020.
There are many keys to making that happen, but surely one of the most important is how left-hander Shota Imanaga follows up on last season’s spectacular rookie campaign.
Imanaga put together one of the best rookie seasons in Cubs history, making the transition to MLB look seamless after eight seasons in Japan. He fashioned a 15-3 record with a 2.91 ERA and a 1.021 WHIP, striking out 174 and walking just 28 in 173 1/3 innings pitched.
Imanaga finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting and fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting.
He’ll get the chance to play in his native Japan when the Cubs open the season with a two-game series against the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers on March 18 and 19 in Tokyo.
“For the staff, coaches and players of the Cubs, I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for them to really feel and understand how great Japan is,” Imanaga said through an interpreter this week.
He also said he wants his teammates to try sushi in Japan and compare the difference to sushi in America. New pitching teammate Colin Rea, for example, has played two seasons in Japan but claims to not care for sushi.
“I think he ate fake sushi, so I think I’m going to show him some real ones,” Imanaga said.
In addition to Imanaga, fellow lefty ace Justin Steele and right-handed veteran Jameson Taillon all return to anchor the Cubs’ starting rotation this season. Offseason free-agent addition Matthew Boyd will make it three southpaw starters for the Cubs.
“It’s a really talented rotation,” Boyd said. “I think the guys that we have here, beyond five — six, seven, eight, nine — there’s a lot of quality arms here.”
The 34-year-old Boyd returned from Tommy John surgery to make eight starts last season for the Cleveland Guardians. He posted a 2.47 ERA and was even better in three postseason appearances, allowing just one run over 11 2/3 innings as the Guardians reached the ALCS.
Boyd hopes to go deep in the playoffs again, this time in the National League with the Cubs. His grandfather, who passed away in recent years, grew up in Chicago and was a diehard Cubs fan.
“I want to win,” Boyd said. “I got a taste of winning last year and a taste of the playoffs.”
Injuries have been a problem for Boyd, who hasn’t made more than 15 starts in a season since 2019. But he’s hoping a strong finish to last season will springboard him to a strong 2025.
“When he’s been healthy, he’s pitched very well,” Cubs second-year manager Craig Counsell said. “There hasn’t been a full track record of health recently, but getting it behind him and finishing the (2024) season in a good spot, we think he’s in a good place to deliver a big chunk of innings this year.”
Speaking of health, injuries really affected the Cubs’ starting rotation in 2024 — as they do for most teams in most seasons. Still, the 2024 starting rotation finished in the top five in ERA in all of MLB, and the pitching staff as a whole ranked 10th, in spite of injuries and early bullpen struggles.
An injury has already hit the staff in camp, as right-hander Javier Assad is battling oblique soreness and will have some imaging done before a timeline on his return to throwing can be determined.
Lefty Jordan Wicks and righty Ben Brown, young prospects who were both injured last season, are also in the mix for 2025, and both said they’re 100% and feeling great going into camp.
Rea also adds depth after proving to be a workhorse for the Milwaukee Brewers over the last two seasons, pitching more than 320 innings over that time as a back-end starter and swingman out of the bullpen.
Rea returns to the Cubs after appearing in nine game for them in 2020. He signed with the Brewers after the Cubs released him, making just one appearance in 2021 before spending the 2022 season in Japan. Rea returned to Milwaukee in 2023 and established a spot on the staff under Counsell, then the Brewers manager.