Chicago Cubs Lineup (9/22/26): Imanaga on Bump as Bats Battle Junk

“Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong!” Cubs fans. For those who aren’t familiar with the epic animated adventures of The Transformers: The Movie from 1986, and who didn’t catch its recent re-release in theaters last weekend, that is the universal greeting meant to express goodwill across alien races when a language barrier exists. I found it fitting because the Autobots end up stranded on Junkion, a planet-sized garbage dump inhabited by scrap-pile Transformers that developed a culture based on TV broadcasts from Earth.

What in the hell does any of that have to do with today’s game? Well, the Marlins will be sending Janson Junk to the mound this evening. The 30-year-old righty reminds me a little of Junkion leader Wreck-Gar, which I’ll get into a bit more on the other side of the lineup.

Shōta Imanaga has been throwing some junk of his own, with just four earned runs and one homer allowed over his last three starts. All of those have been wins, which is even more important. He’ll get the benefit of a strong breeze blowing in from center at up to 20 mph or so as cooler temps blanket the Midwest. Repeating his effort from 18 days ago in Miami should put his team in a great spot.

Pete Crow-Armstrong leads off in center, and he can take another step toward joining the 40/40 club as long as he stops hitting so many homers. Seiya Suzuki is in right, Michael Busch plays first, Michael Conforto is the DH, and Ian Happ is in left. Nico Hoerner takes second, Pedro Ramírez is at third, Carson Kelly is the catcher, and Dansby Swanson plays short.

Junk was on the mound in that last Imanaga start, and he wore the loss despite allowing just one run on three hits and a walk over five innings. The Cubs managed to bust out immediately against his relievers, which was indeed a relief after being shut down by a career journeyman. That said, Junk has worked with Driveline to refine his repertoire in an attempt to stick around as more than just an emergency call-up.

After accumulating just 40 innings over four seasons with as many teams, Junk caught on with the Marlins and should set a new career high after throwing 110 innings last year. He’s at 114 coming into Tuesday’s action, with all but one of his 24 appearances coming as starts. The dude seems like he was cobbled together out of spare parts, but he has transformed himself into a very passable starter.

Junk’s 94 mph four-seam isn’t going to blow anyone away, though he’s throwing harder than ever before, and his 15.1% whiff rate is better than only three of 341 MLB pitchers. For what it’s worth, Javier Assad (15.2%) is not one of them. Assad also ranks last with a 22.6% chase rate, which is why I dislike the idea of bringing him into a dirty inning.

Junk benefits from a lot of ride on his heater, allowing him to work up in the zone with moderate effectiveness. His fastball is offset by an 86 mph slider, an 87 mph changeup that lives at the bottom of the zone, an 80 mph sweeper, and an 81 mph curve. There is also a 93-94 mph sinker that he’ll flash occasionally. The change is the only plus pitch of that group, so you’d think throwing it more to left-handed hitters would lead to fairly even splits.

That is not the case, as lefties have crushed him all season. His big problem is that he creates very little deception and throws too many strikes, which is why he’s given up 122 hits. That also leads to efficiency problems, as he’s only completed six innings four times all year. Only one of those has come in his last 15 starts, though his recent results have been very good for the most part.

Junk has allowed no more than two runs in 10 of his last 11 appearances, with six one-run outings and two scoreless outings in that mix. Then he gave up eight runs to the Mets in just three innings. That game came right after his start against the Cubs, and he allowed just one run to the Diamondbacks right after.

All three of the Cubs’ hits against Junk were singles in the top of the 2nd inning, so they did nothing of note the rest of the game against him. That needs to change tonight, because they can’t create another situation in which the result is left up to chance. With just six games left and the final weekend in flux due to a pending nor’easter in Boston, everything takes on heightened importance.

First pitch is at 6:40pm CT on Marquee and The Score.