Cubs' Nico Hoerner shares his appreciation for Shota Imanaga's 'hilarious' personality

(670 The Score) Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga has earned admiration for his performance on the mound this season, as he has opened his MLB career with a 5-0 record and 0.78 ERA entering his start against the Padres on Tuesday evening.

Beyond that, Imanaga the person has also drawn appreciation inside the Cubs’ clubhouse as a newcomer to the big leagues while playing baseball in America for the first time. Following eight years of playing professional baseball in Japan, the 30-year-old Imanaga has meshed well with the Cubs.

Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner shared with the Parkins & Spiegel Show what he admires about Imanaga.

“I can’t appreciate this enough because I don’t know what it feels like, but like to be in a locker room and not speak the main language fluently has got to be so hard,” Hoerner said Tuesday afternoon. “I know we’ve talked about that before with Seiya (Suzuki) and the challenges of that. But I appreciate that he’s very willing to make fun of himself and he’s not nervous about looking bad or saying something wrong. Like, he’s going for it all the time, loves interacting with the teammates. He’s hilarious.

“You get some of that just with his mannerisms on the mound a little bit, you get a sense of his personality, whereas some guys you really don’t get it from what they do on the field. I like that his body language is very expressive, but it’s also confident. A lot of guys that are expressive, you also get the flip side where they’re hanging their heads or things like that. He gave up a homer in Boston and he was just like, ‘OK, that was interesting’ and went right back to it, like, ‘Here’s another fastball. Try and hit it.’ I’ve just really enjoyed watching him and obviously the results have been insane. It’s just fun too. It brings an energy.”

Imanaga will start for the Cubs on Tuesday in the second game of their series with the Padres at Wrigley Field. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. CT, and the game can be heard on 670 The Score and by downloading the Audacy app.