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The post Cubs And Shota Imanaga Decline Options, Team Makes A Qualifying Offer appeared com. The Cubs had a potential three-year option on Shota Imanaga, he had a potential one-year option on the Cubs. The team made him a Qualifying Offer. Everyone rejected everything, and now the pitcher is a free agent. A player values himself at a certain level, the team feels otherwise. The team wants cost certainty and downside protection; the player wants long-term security. The team tries not to be held hostage by demands down the road; but the player desires flexibility if he outperforms his projections. So, smart people sit in a room and hash out a deal that attempts to check every box. It so rarely happens that we need to acknowledge it when it does. As I have previously written, the Seattle Mariners’ contract with Julio Rodríguez is the gold standard in this regard. But so too was the deal that super-agent Scott Boras hashed out with the Philadelphia Philles for Jake Arrieta in 2016. But a deal that was overlooked at the time, but that has come into focus this week, was the one that the Chicago Cubs signed with pitcher Shota Imanaga before the 2024 season. On its face, the contract was four years, $53 million. Simple enough. Just to make it slightly more complicated, there was a $1 million signing bonus, a $9 million salary for 2024, $13 million salary for 2025, and $15 million for each of 2026 and 2027. After this season, the Cubs had the right to exercise an option for 2028 (yes, three years into the future). To do so, it would become a three-year, $57 million extension (2026 and 2027 go from $15 million to $20 million, and 2028 would be $17 million). Had Imanaga performed as the.