Imanaga in position to start home opener

MESA, Ariz. — Wrigley Field is lined up to be the backdrop to Shota Imanaga's first majorleague start.

Barring any injuries in the final days before the regular season begins, the Cubs' current rotation order has the Japanese lefty scheduled to start their home opener on April 1 against the Colorado Rockies.

“I'm very honored to do that,” Imanaga said Sunday through interpreter Edwin Stanberry.

The Cubs will roll out Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks and Jordan Wicks in their season-opening series against the Rangers in Texas with Imanaga and Javier Assad taking the mound during the team's first homestand versus Colorado. Imanaga hasn't received any advice yet about pitching at Wrigley in April but has heard it's really cold and very windy. The current forecast for the home opener projects a high of 47 degrees with a 53% chance of rain.

“Once I get to Chicago, I kind of want to figure out the environment and go from there,” Imanaga said.

Kyle Hendricks is happy Imanaga gets the ball to kick off the Cubs' home schedule.

“It's going to be an unbelievable feeling,” Hendricks said Sunday after his final spring training start. “I know he's going to soak it all in I'm sure but he's going to be locked in on the task. After it's all over, sit down and just talk about how cool it was and how it went. But it's going to be a special, special game for sure.”

Cubs reportedly to open 2025 season in Japan:

The Cubs will begin next season overseas.

They have been privately informed their 2025 schedule starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Tokyo, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale. The report says the Cubs will return to Arizona following the series and resume their regular-season schedule with a West Coast trip before returning to Chicago.

Those two teams make a lot of sense to represent Major League Baseball for a series in Japan with their rosters each featuring a pair of Japanese stars in the Cubs' Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga, and the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Imanaga remembers watching the two-game Japan Opening Series in 2019 between the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners when Japanese lefty Yusei Kikuchi started the series finale for his MLB debut, coinciding with Ichiro Suzuki's final big-league game.

“That was really memorable,” Imanaga said through Stanberry. “For the fans in Japan, watching games here, there's the time zone differences, so it'd be an honor to be able to play in front of them.

“I'm not thinking about it too much just because I want to focus on this season and getting good results and then once the season's over kind of look forward to that.”

The Cubs played in MLB's inaugural games in Japan when they faced the Mets at the Tokyo Dome to open the 2000 season.