This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here . And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CHICAGO -- Not long after news spread internally that Shota Imanaga had decided to stay with the Cubs for at least one more season, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy fired off a text message to the left-handed pitcher.

“I was pumped,” Hottovy said in a phone conversation this week. “I texted a GIF of him, fist-pumping coming off the mound. And he responded pretty quickly. He was like, ‘This is where I want to be. I’m excited to be back. I’m ready to work.’”

Imanaga made the decision on Tuesday to accept the one-year, qualifying offer ($22.025 million) extended by the Cubs to stick around for ‘26, bringing an end to a compli

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