An uneven first start from Shota Imanaga shows Cubs fans' worries are warranted

Fans had barely settled into their seats and Shota Imanaga's biggest issue reared its ugly head when, after striking out the first two batters of the game, he allowed back-to-back singles, setting up a massive three-run home run from Joey Wiemer that drew exasperated sighs from Chicago Cubs fans everywhere.

Imanaga's struggles to keep the ball in the yard are well-documented - and with the wind blowing out, expectations were low for the left-hander Sunday. He more or less lived up to them, allowing four earned in 5+ innings of work, punching out seven, walking a pair and allowing six hits.

He flirted with danger throughout his outing and his final line could have been much worse than it was, but he managed to slip out of some tight spots and avoid damage. He had just one 1-2-3 inning on the afternoon. Again, things could have been far worse - but Imanaga never quite settled in to look like the pitcher who finished fifth in Cy Young voting and was an All-Star two years ago.

“He pitched pretty well overall,” Craig Counsell said after the loss. “Even that (first) inning, it was the check swing base hit a little bit, and then it was a pitch below the strike zone, maybe a split he just pulled just a little bit and enough for Wiemer to put it in the air the right way to get it out of the park."

One pitch accounted for the majority of the damage against Imanaga, but given that's the one thing the Cubs need him to improve, you know that's what'll stick with folks until his next start.

Shota Imanaga is on thin ice with the fanbase heading into 2026

There is a good chunk of the fanbase ready to relegate Imanaga to mop-up duty once Justin Steele returns later in the first half, but the Cubs continue to be encouraged by what they're seeing out of Imanaga. His velocity is much improved over last year and the swing-and-miss seems better, as well. After he accepted the team's $22 million qualifying offer this winter, don't count on Jed Hoyer bailing on the southpaw - just come to terms with that right now and your life will be easier.

From what I saw, it was a pretty middle-of-the-road start from Imanaga. Some good (seven strikeouts), some bad (the first-inning homer and the fact 50 of his 82 pitches missed the strike zone). It's way too soon to make any sort of proclamation of what we can expect from him this year. It's a long season - and we're just three games in. Don't make too much of one start. Let's see where we are in a month or two and go from there.