Did Shōta just fuck over the Cubs?

The braintrust who run the Cubs are an interesting bunch. Not a lot of brains, and not a lot of reason to trust any of them...but one of the smartest things they did was sign Shōta Imanaga two offseasons ago. He clearly turned out to be better than they expected, and yes, they basically fell face first into his deal because he had made Chicago his preliminary base of operations when he moved to the the US and he liked it so much he wanted to stay there. The convoluted contract they signed him to was extremely low risk for the Cubs. It was a two-year $22.5 million deal, with a team-friendly three-year $57 million option. Shōta pitched well enough in his first two years (incredibly well in 2024 and still really good in 2025) that a big market team should have rushed to pick up that option, even if, as it did, contain a full no trade clause when it was exercised. The Cubs didn't though, because they don't like paying players.

Shōta could have exercised his own $15 million option which would have then given the Cubs another team option after 2026 for two years and about $40 million. But he was smart enough to know that if the Cubs didn't want him for three years when he was 32, they weren't going to want to pay him even more per year for two years when he was 33.

The Cubs made Shōta the qualifying offer, fully expecting him to go shop for a mutli-year deal rather than just accept a tidy raise to $22 million for just one year.

And then, our boy Shōta, who is one of our all-time favorites, did the best thing. He fucked over the Cubs and he accepted the option.

And why not? The Cubs tanked his free agent market by attaching the qualifying offer to him, meaning any other team who signed him would lose a draft pick, and any team over the luxury tax who might have wanted him would have lost an even higher draft pick and paid a financial penalty.

So while Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins were braiding each other's hair and daydreaming about all of the washed up veterans they could sign to minor league contracts with that $22 million, Shōta just said, "Pay me, bitches!"

And, after next season...if there is an after next season...Shōta can hit the market again, unencumbered by draft pick compensation.

It's a win-win. We get one of the most fun Cubs ever, back for another season. He gets to play at a place he clearly likes. And, it screws up Jed's plans to be super cheap and still act like he's trying to build a winner. I guess it's a win-win-win.

There's no reason Shōta signing for one-year $22 million should have any impact on what the Cubs do this offseason. They are way under the dreaded luxury tax, they need all the pitchers they can get and it's a one-year deal. They should spend because they can and it's a smart way to try to get better.

But of course they'll use this as an excuse to run screaming from the free agent starting pitching market. Because if you give them an excuse, they'll take it.

Fuck 'em. I'm glad Shōta's back. He's fun. And the Cubs need more fun.

Another day, another excerpt from the upcoming book Great Until It Wasn't: The highs and lows of the 2003-2004 Cubs available Friday on Amazon.

Today we go back to what probably proved to be Dusty Baker's finest hour as a Cubs manager. The Cubs and Cardinals were in the midst of the fourth game of a five games in four days series that had started on Labor Day at Wrigley. It was also the seventh game the two teams had played against each other in ten days, and everybody was even more sick of each other than normal.

The Cubs had won the first game on a dominant pitching performance by Mark Prior and the second game on a 15th inning walkoff homer by Sammy Sosa. That was the first game of a doubleheader and the Cubs lost the nightcap on a terrible call on a Moises Alou ball down the left field line that would have given the Cubs a lead. Moises went nuts. Gee, when would that ever happen again? Between innings, Antonio "El Pulpo" Alfonseca got thrown out of the game for bumping the third base umpire (Antonio was not in the game at the time). In that game Kerry Wood repeatedly tried to hit Matt Morris while Morris was trying to bunt. We enjoyed it very much. But The Genius, Tony LaRussa did not seem to think it was as funny as we did.

So things were very heated for game four on Wednesday and Cardinals starter Dan Haren tried to hit Matt Clement on the first pitch of his first at bat and missed him, and had to try it again on the second pitch. When he did, the umpires warned both teams and The Genius came out to complain about it. Then Dusty came out to complain about it. And then they started yelling at each other. Both were perched in the corner of the dugout MFing each other. Dusty even flipped Tony off, but did it sideways to make it less obvious. It was great. After years of the LaRussa Cardinals pulling this kind of shit and Jim Riggleman actively telling his players not to retaliate (he once went nuts when Ramon Tatis hit Gary Gaetti after Ray Lankford had hit a three run homer...even though Ramon's teammates loved it), and Don Baylor hardly ever being awake enough to notice, Dusty was not going to let The Genius pull this shit without hearing about it. Dusty had a long history with LaRussa before he ever came to the Cubs, and for all of Dusty's faults, his pure loathing of The Genius was very, very welcome.

Best yet, after the two screamed at each other the Cubs fell behind 6-0, only to roar back and win 8-7 behind five hits from Moises Alou, the fifth of which drove in Mark Grudzielanek with two outs in the eighth to give the Cubs the lead. Sweaty Joe Borowski (he was still "Regular Joe" to us at that point) struck out Lassie Edmonds to finish it off.

The Cubs won the next day, too, taking four of the five games and the Cardinals were effectively done in the NL Central race.

Daily Dose: What the hell is a “buzzball”?

Sep 4, 2003

In one way you have to admire The Genius. There he was yesterday, sitting at a table, holding a press conference in a game that his team absolutely coughed up. The Cardinals had blown a six run lead, had abused their “ace” pitcher by throwing him into the fire in a relief stint just two days after throwing 112 pitches in another loss, and The Genius was trying to think of ways to change the subject.

He went with the “mean Cubs pitchers are throwing at my players” angle. I don’t admire his argument or the reasons behind it, but you have to admire the sheer “what the hell?” way he just threw it out there to see if the media would bite.

Of course, they did.

”It’s dangerous, and nobody takes it. When you see a lot of buzzballs, everybody has a problem with that. If we throw a lot of balls up and in, Dusty is going to be upset. Whoever does it, it’s a problem and not acceptable.

”Whoever the pitcher is, and even if we do it, that’s always a bad issue for any team that has to deal with it. The up and in ball has bothered me ever since I managed. Always. We have never tolerated a pitch up and in. Never.”^[1]

What the hell is a buzzball?

The real reason that The Genius is mad is that Kerry Wood punked Matt Morris repeatedly on Tuesday night. Morris kept trying to bunt, and Kerry kept zipping pitches up and in to make it tough for Matt to bunt. Given that Kerry’s control from time to time is shaky, it was dangerous. But you notice that Tony didn’t have Morris try and retaliate against Kerry. First, Morris would have gotten tossed and the Cardinals couldn’t afford that. Second, Kerry was liable to put Morris on the permanent DL in the resulting scrum.

”If you can find any pitcher of mine I have ever had that says differently, I’ll give you whatever you want that I can afford. It’s too scary. That’s a real dangerous shot, and no one tolerates it. It can be corrected by just getting the ball down.”

Oh, so it’s OK to drill a guy in the leg. Well, then it must be OK when Kerry drills Fernando Vina repeatedly in the knee. Heck, Fernando swings at most of those, anyway.

The Genius then said that somebody told him Kerry enjoys hitting guys. “I’ll tell Dusty who told me, and he can go to that guy and straighten it out if he wants to. He says [Wood] likes to hit people because he likes to scare them.”

Yeah. That’s kind of the point.

Who was the greatest pitcher in Cardinals’ history?

A guy named Bob Gibson who used to plunk guys in the head if they even thought about getting a hit off of him.

That’s what makes this whole thing just that much more absurd.

This is The Genius’ way of warning the Cubs not to do it again. But he knows that today’s starter, Shawn Estes, can’t hit anything he throws at. Remember last year when he somehow missed Roger Clemens’ ass? So the point is moot. Tony acts tough and then doesn’t have to worry about it. But since Estes will likely only be around for an inning or two, it’d be nice to see The Farns come in and plunk somebody and give them the Paul Wilson Treatment.

Speaking of Estes, just why the hell is he starting today? I know it’s “his turn”, but sometimes the music stops and there aren’t enough chairs. Today there should be chair left for Shawn.

Alas, given that Juan Cruz is needed to start tomorrow night in Milwaukee, what were the other alternatives?

Felix Sanchez? Uh…no. Todd Wellemeyer…he’s had his moments and he can’t be worse than Estes. But we’ll see plenty of Wellemeyer today, anyway. How about Sergio Meat Tray?

OK, as long as this is the last time we see Shawn, I can live with it. I guess.

Oh hell, no I can’t.

Yesterday’s Cubs game was one of the best in recent memory.

Given the stakes and the opponent and the fact that it was the fourth game in three days between the teams, it might have been the biggest win in these parts since the Wild Card game in 1998.

Every championship season has a win that you look back on as the tipping point. In 1984 it was the Sandberg-Sutter game.^[1] In 1989 it was the ten run rally in the last three innings against the Astros. In 1998 it was three Friday sequence in which Brant Brown had three walk off homers.

In 2003 it was the Moises Alou five for five game. You’ll be telling the grandkids about that one.

Think of all the stuff that happened.

• Danny Haren got drilled in the hand by Matt Clement. Matt Clement got drilled in the leg by Danny Haren. The subsequent argument between The Genius and Dusty was a lip reader’s dream.

• Ramon Martinez got thrown out at home by Albert Pujols and it wasn’t Wendell Kim’s fault. What were the odds?

• Felix Sanchez made his MLB debut a memorable one by serving up a grand slam to Albert Pujols.

• Jeff Fassero came in and threw gas all over the lead.

• E-Ramis hit a game turning homer to stop the bleeding.

• Moises hit one to continue the hope.

• Alex Gonzalez continued to eat the Cardinals for lunch with a homer to make it 7-5.

• Fernando Vina tripled to lead off the eighth and the Cardinals didn’t advance him one foot.

• Woody Williams began throwing up in the bullpen. I mean, started throwing in the bullpen.

• Woody came in, fresh off a 112 pitch performance on Monday and had nothing. He gave up the lead with a triple to Mark Grudzielanek and the game with a single to, who else? Moises.

• Regular Joe came in and finished things off by striking out the most evil of the Evil Satanic Red Fowl, Jim Edmonds.

A good time was had by all.

Here's the video of The Genius and Dusty yelling at each other. I have to credit the director on WGN, he did an incredible job cutting from one to the other while they were telling each other what to do to themselves.