MLB Notebook: Shota Imanaga one of four pitchers impressing early on this season
The Red Sox starting pitching has been a huge story to begin the year. With the likes of Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck anchoring down the staff, three other pitchers around the league are having impressive starts.
Shota Imanaga
Who would have thought after all the noise and hoopla surrounding Dodgers’ ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto that fellow free agent Shota Imanaga would be having the superior season as of mid-May?
Imanaga has started hot out of the gate, posting a 5-0 record with a 1.08 ERA and 0.816 WHIP over seven starts. The Cubs signed the Japanese left-hander to a two-year, $23 million deal that can reach $80 million with options and escalators over five years.
The 30-year-old rookie has allowed just five earned runs in his starts, which is the fewest among qualified pitchers. Imanaga ranks in the 97th percentile in chase percentage and walk percentage. He also ranks in the 94th percentile in xERA at 2.31 and in the 99th percentile in pitching run value. If that’s too nerdy for you, it means he’s been lights out.
Imanaga features a six-pitch mix, led by his four-seam fastball, which he’s thrown 57.9% of the time, followed by his split-finger fastball, which he’s thrown 30.3% of the time. His fast ball sits between 91 and 93 mph, which lives around the top of the zone, and his split-finger induces strikeouts out of the zone.
Ranger Suarez
Phillies right-hander Ranger Suarez leads the majors in wins and is 7-0 over his first eight starts to open the year. He ranks among the best in xERA in the 95th percentile at 2.22, exit velocity at 83.2 mph in the 98th percentile, and in the 92nd percentile in walk percentage at 4.1%.
Suarez is off to a historically great start, becoming the fourth Phillies starter to open the year with a sub-2.0 ERA after eight starts. The others to accomplish this feat were Zack Wheeler this year (1.64 ERA), Roy Halladay in 2010 (1.59), and Brett Myers in 2005 (1.63).
The 28-year-old doesn’t look at what he’s doing as impressive and says that “this is his job.” The righty throws strikes and owns a 59.5% ground ball percentage, which is in the 95th percentile. Opposing hitters have only been able to barrel up his pitches seven times and get his opponents to whiff 23.1% of the time.
Dylan Cease
Dylan Cease is pitching like a bona fide ace atop the Padres rotation this season. The right-hander is 5-2 with a 2.19 ERA over eight starts while ranking in the 93rd percentile in xBA at .186. 95th percentile in whiff percentage at 34.1%, and the 93rd percentile in K% at 32.4%.
In his last outing, Cease was dominant in a 3-0 win over the Cubs. He hit 99 mph on the radar gun multiple times while showing elite stuff since arriving in San Diego. According to Statcast, his four-seam fastball is averaging 96.6 mph, which is a mph faster than last year. His slider is coming in at 86.4 mph, 1.8 mph faster than in 2023.
Among qualified major league pitchers, Cease currently ranks second in fWAR (1.7), seventh in ERA, second in WHIP, sixth in strikeouts, third in FIP (2.29), fourth in home runs per nine innings (0.36), and 10th in strikeouts per nine (10.95).
Cease looks like a Cy Young candidate through mid-May, proving general manager A.J. Preller right by paying the kings ransom to acquire the ace.
Kutter Crawford
Kutter Crawford has been outstanding and is one of the reasons the Red Sox lead the MLB in team ERA at 2.75. The right-hander has a 1.75 ERA (5th in MLB) through eight starts with 46 strikeouts.
Over his last 12 starts dating back to September 12, 2023, Crawford has recorded a 1.98 ERA and 1.00 WHIP, and he’s holding opponents to a .190 batting average.
Crawford has been utilizing his cutter, four-seam fastball, and sweeper the most during his starts. His heater has been his putaway pitch, getting batters with it 22.7% of the time.
Three major reasons for his success have been the change of location in how he uses his cutter, utilizing his sweeper more (23.7%), and the fact that he's only thrown his curveball 37 times. Opponents have hit .196 in at-bats that end with his cutter and ranks second in baseball in bWAR at 2.2.
