Insider asserts Cubs made second-best move of the offseason

Remember when Chicago Cubs fans were claiming that Jed Hoyer was asleep because he wasn't making any offseason moves? The Cubs did not make a trade until the middle of January when they acquired Michael Busch from the Los Angeles Dodgers. They did not sign a player to an MLB contract until they inked Hector Neris to a one-year deal in late January.

The Cubs offseason was seen as a miss because they failed to sign a single high-end free agent and didn't pull off a major trade either. It felt like the biggest move that the Cubs made was signing Craig Counsell.

The Cubs sit at 25-21 on the season after Friday's loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates and it's hard to imagine where they'd be without the moves that Hoyer made over the offseason. One in particular sticks out and is seen by Jon Heyman of the NY Post as the second-best move of the offseason.

MLB insider claims Cubs signing Shota Imanaga signing was the second-best move of the offseason

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the talk of the offseason when it came to international free agency and he was paid like he was one of, if not the best player in the game, receiving a record-setting 12-year deal worth $325 million from the Dodgers. Yamamoto has pitched great after an abysmal first outing, but he's been outclassed by fellow Japanese free agent Shota Imanaga.

The Cubs were the winners of the Imanaga sweepstakes and could not be more thankful for that. All it took to get him was four years and $53 million. It looked pretty good at the time, and looks better every time he takes the mound.

The southpaw has been a revelation for the Cubs, posting a 0.96 ERA in his first eight starts and 46.2 innings pitched in MLB. He has 51 strikeouts compared to just eight walks while he leads the league in both ERA and FIP (2.28). Imanaga has allowed two earned runs or fewer in all eight of his appearances while also not allowing a single earned run in five of those eight outings.

The Cubs have gone 7-1 when he's started for them, and the only time that they lost came his last time out when Imanaga pitched five scoreless innings against the high-powered Atlanta Braves.

While the Dodgers signing Shohei Ohtani obviously can't be topped, the Cubs having the second-best move of the offseason is a testament to just how good Imanaga has been.