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Every Cubs Starting Pitcher Analyzed For 2025 – PL Pro Early Access

Cubs Starting Pitcher Rotation for 2025. Every SP analyzed.

To prepare my Top 400 Starting Pitchers for 2025 article, I thoroughly review every team's rotation and write the blurbs you see in February. I usually don't share these publicly until then, but I wanted to give another benefit to those who support us with PL Pro. Y'all are the ones who keep the lights on for us. Y'all rock.

With PL Pro, you'll get access to these articles, an ad-free experience, access to our 1,000+ member Discord (the best place to take baseball on the internet!) our 2025 player projections infused with PLV (Pitch modeling!), our incredible PLV Apps, including Live PLV data in-season and rolling charts for Process+, and so much more.

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You can also join me LIVE on playback.tv/pitcherlist throughout the off-season as I craft these articles by watching games together, displaying my research process, and chatting with our community.

Huge thanks to Josh Mockensturm for creating these tables and finding video for all these players.

 

Expected Starters

Shota Imanaga (CHC, LHP)

2024 Stats Table & 2025 PL Projections
Pitch Repertoire Table VS RHB
Pitch Repertoire Table VS LHB
Stuff Metrics

I don't see a large drop off for Imanaga in 2025, though the superb rookie campaign of a 2.91 ERA and 1.02 WHIP is unlikely to be replicated. And that's okay! He'll continue to stave off the walks with a four-seamer that has elite "HAVAA" and elite "iVB", even at 91 mph and below average extension due to a nullifying splitter and Imanaga's ability to elevate effectively.

The splitter is sure to dominate once again, even if its 27% SwStr takes a small tumble. Think of Imanaga as a better version of Kevin Gausman: He has a strike-earning fastball with a devestating splitter with the benefit of a sweeper that works wonders against opposite-handed batters. That outlines a mid-3s ERA with a 25% strikeout rate and 1.10 WHIP, with some risk of a decline if his fastball's attributes take a step back in the year ahead. We'll take that all day.

I have to mention a slight concern about sophomore seasons for Japanese pitchers. After the large increase in workload during their rookie season, we've seen Japanese pitchers wear down in their second year in the majors, creating a small cloud of haze for Imanaga in the year ahead. But every pitcher is an injury risk! Yep, that's completely fair and I'm not ranking Imanaga lower based on that anxiety - just don't think of Imanaga as a lock for 32+ starts moreso than any other.

Quick Take: Imanaga's splitter and sweeper grant him strikeouts against both LHB and RHB while his four-seamer is a reliable strike pitch to set up his vicious weapons. He was able to dodge untimely longballs in 2024 to keep his ERA under 3.00 and while we're unlikely to see that performance again, the overall production should be there.

 

Justin Steele (CHC, LHP)

2024 Stats Table & 2025 PL Projections

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    Nick Pollack

    Founder of Pitcher List. Creator of CSW, The List, and SP Roundup. Worked with MSG, FanGraphs, CBS Sports, and Washington Post. Former college pitcher, travel coach, pitching coach, and Brandeis alum. Wants every pitcher to be dope.

    One response to “Every Cubs Starting Pitcher Analyzed For 2025 – PL Pro Early Access”

    1. Tony says:

      Festa worth a late flier?

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