Shōta Imanaga was pushed back a day and lined up to face the Yankees on July 31, 2026, giving the Cubs’ left-hander extra rest for a matchup that had already changed shape. The adjustment put Will Warren, 27, on the other side for the visitors.
That mattered because the Yankees were short three familiar middle-order bats. Aaron Judge was out with rib trouble, Giancarlo Stanton was on the 10-day IL after being placed there back in late April, and Cody Bellinger was sidelined by a hamstring injury. Even with that absence, Ben Rice still carried a 137 wRC+ against southpaws, which meant the lineup was thinner but not harmless against Imanaga.
The Cubs had reason to buy the extra day. Imanaga had looked incredible over his last five starts, and the schedule offered no soft landing after this one. They were set to face the Yankees and Dodgers over the next six games, so every turn of the rotation had to be handled with the next opponent in mind. Moving Imanaga back a day did more than line him up against New York; it preserved a starter who had been dealing while the calendar tightened around the Cubs.
Warren made the game more than a rest-day decision. The right-hander came from Brandon, MS, attended Jackson Preparatory School in nearby Flowood and then matriculated at Southeastern Louisiana before the Yankees took him in the eighth round of the 2021 draft. He reached the majors in under three seasons, a fast climb for a pitcher who throws from a three-quarter slot with a fastball that sits 93-94 mph. His season had not followed a straight line, either: he had four games with five or more earned runs allowed, but also six games with one or no runs allowed, eight games with three or fewer strikeouts and five games with seven or more strikeouts.
That mix is why the matchup was not as one-sided as the injuries suggested. The Yankees looked depleted on paper, but Rice kept one threat alive against a left-handed starter, and New York still had a chance to make Imanaga work if his command drifted. For the Cubs, the rotation shuffle was less about a mystery and more about control: one more day of rest for their best arm, one more chance to line up the next stretch cleanly, and one more test before the schedule swung toward the Dodgers. Javier Assad now sat in the background of the week as the larger pitching picture kept changing around Chicago.
