Shōta Imanaga Passes Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Latest NL Rookie of the Year Odds

One of the best stories of the MLB season so far has been the player of Cubs rookie pitcher, Shōta Imanaga.

Through his first six starts and 34.2 innings pitched, the Japanese pitcher has allowed just three earned runs for a sparkling ERA of 0.78. As a result, he has become to new betting favorite to be named the National League Rookie of the Year.

Shōta Imanaga Rookie of the Year Odds

Yoshinobu Yamamoto opened the season as the betting favorite to be named NL Rookie of the Year, but Imanage has recently overtaken him and is now set as the top dog at +350. That's an implied probability of 22.22% that he'll be named Rookie of the Year.

Imanaga's odds at the start of the season were +1600, or an implied probability of 5.88%.

It's always tough to predict how Japanese players will fare when they come over to Major League Baseball, but Imanaga performing well shouldn't come as a surprise. He had a 2.66 ERA in Japan in 2024 and a 2.04 ERA in 2022.

Still, his level of play has exceeded the expectations of even the biggest believers in him. Not only have his odds to win NL ROY skyrockted, but he's starting to enter in the Cy Young conversation.

NL Cy Young Odds

Imanaga has shot up the NL Cy Young odds and now sits at +1500 odds, which is an implied probability of 6.25%. Only Zack Wheeler (+350), Tyler Glasnow (+550), Freddy Peralta (+1200), and Dylan Cease (+1200) has better odds to win the award.

Only one pitcher in MLB history has won both the Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young in the same season. It was achieved by Fernando Valenzuela for the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1981, who finished the season with an ERA of 2.48 along with 180 strikeouts.

If you want to bet on Imanaga to make history this season, do it now before it's too late.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

You can check out all of Iain's bets here!