While the baseball world was buzzing about Paul Skenes and his six no-hit innings at Wrigley Field in just his second start, it was not the only big day for a rookie pitcher in the series. The “other guy” may be in the shadows cast by the hype around Skenes, but he put together the greatest start of any rookie pitcher since ERA’s began being tracked more than a century ago. His excellence on the mound and his flair on and off the field has collectors clamoring for Shota Imanaga baseball cards.
Through his first nine starts, the Chicago Cubs’ new ace had recorded the lowest ERA of any pitcher (not including openers) with an ERA of 0.84. On Saturday, he pitched seven shutout innings against the Pirates. He went into the game with a 0.96 ERA.
Baseball stats guru Sarah Langs pointed out on X that Imanaga’s ERA after nine games to start a season is the sixth best ever in baseball.
SHOTA IMANAGA’S 0.84 ERA IS THE LOWEST IN A PITCHER’S 1ST 9 CAREER STARTS SINCE ER OFFICIAL IN BOTH LEAGUES (1913) [excluding openers]
only other under 1.00: 1981 Fernando Valenzuela, 0.91 https://t.co/HftudO40cm
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 18, 2024
During the Cubs TV broadcast, play-by-play man Boog Sciambi spent some time comparing the excitement in Chicago to every Imanaga start to “Fernandomania” that gripped the baseball world during Fernando Valenzuela’s rookie year in 1981.
Topps also connected the dots on the excitement and comparison and produced a Topps Now card featuring Imanaga and Valenzuela.
Perhaps a better comparison for Imanaga would be Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, who combined an incredible rookie season with a quirky personality and love for the game that baseball fans loved and ate up.
Imanaga, like Fidrych, is animated on the mound and does and says all of the right things to make the Windy City fall in love with him. The former Japanese star memorized the words to Chicago Cubs fight song Go Cubs Go! He has become a Blackhawks fan and warmed up in his first start to Chelsea Dagger, which is the song played after Blackhawks goals.
During spring training, he noticed his teammates like to throw a football around hours before games. Imanaga went to a local Target store in Arizona and bought a football so he could be a part of it.
While Imanaga is being overshadowed by Skenes currently, he was also overshadowed in the offseason. All of the attention was going to Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Comparatively, Imanaga’s signing drew some attention, but nothing compared to Yamamoto.
While Skenes has had the baseball world buzzing in his first two Major League starts, Imanaga has also been almost unhittable since his first start. Imanaga had a no-hitter in a Colorado Rockies giving up two hits and striking out nine in six shutout innings.
After giving up a pair of two-out singles, Imanaga escaped the jam with a trike out. He yelled as he walked off the mound, igniting the crowd and his teammates. In the media scrum after the game, he was asked what he yelled. He said he didn’t remember what he yelled, but he followed it with “Let’s go!”
In April, Imanaga finished with a 4-0 record. In 27.2 innings pitched, he gave up just three earned runs and 19 hits while striking out 28. He’s the early favorite for NL Rookie of the Year.
Early Imanaga Topps Cards
Over the last month, the average price for an Imanaga card sold on eBay has climbed to $137.
While pack-pulled cards are just starting to arrive, Imanaga has had multiple on-demand cards produced. There was an off-season Topps NOW card issued after he signed his free agent deal with the Cubs. His first NOW card as an active player, #27 of the 2024 offerings, captured the moment of him yelling and pumping up during his MLB debut.
So far, Topps has sold over 32,000 Imanaga NOW cards.
Imanaga’s first pack pulled cards here in the US came inside packs of 2024 Topps Chrome Black. There are base cards, parallels and even some autographs (although some are redemptions). You can check out pricing here. The 1/1 rookie SuperFractor from the set sold for $2,055 on eBay earlier this month.
Imanaga rookie cards should be a big driver of sales for 2024 Topps Series 2.
Now that he’s into his first season, Imanaga should appear in multiple products throughout the season and assuming he continues to pitch well, you can also look for plenty of on-demand releases via Topps NOW.
Imanaga Japanese Cards
2024 isn’t the first time Imanaga has appeared on Topps branded products. The company’s deal with Nippon Professional Baseball and the World Baseball Classic has put several Imanaga cards into packs over the last few seasons, including base cards and inserts. Pricing varies but most are fairly reasonable, considering the fairly limited supply being offered on eBay.
BBM, a Japanese card company that was formed during the hobby boom of the late 80s and early 90s, began manufacturing Nippon Baseball League cards in 1991. Because of the success and the hype around the various Japanese stars who have left Japan for the Major Leagues, BBM cards are becoming more mainstream among the hard core rookie collectors. The cards were difficult to find in the 1990s when Hideo Nomo became a Major League star in the 1990s. Once Ichiro arrived in Seattle, eBay had grown to the extent that international sellers and collectors were making transactions to make BBM cards more popular.
Shohei Ohtani gave BBM cards a surge of interest over the past few seasons. Last year, Kodai Senga of the New York Mets and Masataka Yoshida of the Boston Red Sox drove more collectors to BBM to look for early cards of the two stars.
Imanaga’s Japanese rookie cards are in the 2016 BBM set from his time with the Yokahama DeNA BayStars. His performance Saturday triggered interest in those cards. After Saturday’s game, there were 26 Imanaga BBM transactions before end of day Sunday. There were two 2016 BBM Imanaga Red Foil autograph variations numbered out of 25 that sold on eBay on Sunday in fixed price sales. One went for $695 and the other sold for $682.
What Does The Future Hold for Imanaga?
One of the big concerns in the hobby when it comes to pitchers has been durability. After we examined a number of scouting reports and listened to various analysts, Imanaga presents an interesting situation for collectors.
He throws a very hard-to-hit four seem fastball which averages in the 92-93 mph range. He also has a good curve and slider, and a wipe out change up that has drawn comparisons to Michael Wacha. He gets people out the Greg Maddux way – command, control, and changing velocities. Skenes, meanwhile, hits 100 mph several times per inning.
The reason that is important in the hobby is that he is not another 99+ mph arm waiting for a 12-month stint on the IL after Tommy John surgery. While Skenes is amazing to watch and his bandwagon is picking up more and more fans, you have to wonder how much his arm can take. Everyone is hoping he is as durable as Nolan Ryan was.
As it stands, Imanaga is destined to play in the All-Star Game and he is the player Skenes will have to catch if he wants to be Rookie of the Year.
But until that is sorted out, collectors will be anticipating more releases that showcase one of baseball’s newest stars.
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