North Side Baseball's 2024 Cubs Most Valuable Player - Shota Imanaga

Even in a season full of disappointments, the Cubs had plenty of talent. That’s what makes the result so frustrating, knowing that the skill was there, even if the results weren’t. Let’s take a look at who the North Side Baseball crew voted as the 2024 Most Valuable Player.

Honorable Mention 
Nico Hoerner, Cody Bellinger, Jameson Taillon, Justin Steele, Porter Hodge, and Pete Crow-Armstrong

Let's countdown the Top 5 vote getters for Chicago Cubs 2024 MVP.

#4: Michael Busch (1B), Dansby Swanson (SS)
Michael Busch won our Rookie of the Year award but ended up tying with Dansby Swanson for fourth place in MVP voting. Both players were absolutely spectacular, and one thing they had in common was great defense. Swanson has always been a great fielder, as we knew when he was signed before the 2023 season. Swanson won the Gold Glove award in his first season with Chicago and will be in the running once again once the postseason concludes.

Busch was acquired for his bat, but his defense was equally as impressive. Knowing that the Cubs have someone who can hit 20+ home runs while also providing a strong glove is really important when building this team. We had it in Anthony Rizzo, and now we have it with Michael Busch.

Swanson started off strong and then fell into a rough slump where his batting average sat around .200, not something you expect from the face of the franchise. He finished the season with a 99 wRC+, right at the league average. Swanson finished the first half with a .212 average but turned it around by hitting .281 in the second half. Battling through the criticism from all the media, the shortstop had a really solid season.

#2: Seiya Suzuki (RF/DH), Ian Happ (LF)
The best two offensive players in Chicago this year tie for second place, although I’d give Seiya Suzuki the slight edge due offensively. Suzuki posted a 183 wRC+ and 3.5 fWAR, all while missing 30 games total due to injuries. In May, he had an average but .219, but other than that he was one of the best hitters in all of baseball.

Happ had a 122 wRC+ but posted 3.6 fWAR thanks to his great defense. Happ’s no-trade clause makes it very unlikely that he’s moved this offseason, which is totally fine with me due to his reliability offensively. There is always a stretch where he goes into a horrible slump, but in the end, the season numbers always look quite impressive.

#1: Shota Imanaga (SP)
Shota Imanaga had a spectacular rookie season, earning the most votes for Most Valuable Player on the 2024 Chicago Cubs. His 37.2% ground ball rate worked well with the strong infield defense, and the 2.91 ERA also backed that up. 

He threw a career-high 173 1/3 innings with a 1.02 WHIP and .264 BABIP. Imanaga doesn’t throw super hard, but his command is what makes him one of the best pitchers in baseball. His Cubs debut came on April 1st, the home opener in Chicago against the Colorado Rockies. The southpaw threw six innings of shutout baseball, not allowing a hit until the sixth inning. He was everything you could ask for and followed that up with an incredible rest of the season. 

Looking at Imanaga’s rankings league-wide is important to show just how good he was. His K/9 ranked 21st in all of baseball, with his BB/9 ranking 4th. His BABIP was 12th best, LOB% 4th, ERA 5th, and fWAR 28th. He didn’t just have a great season when looking at the Cubs standards, he had an insane season when looking at the whole league. And don’t worry, we have him for several more years to come. 

So what do you think? Would Imanaga receive your top vote? Who would you rank #1?