Chicago Cubs Lineup (7/31/26): Imanaga Facing Depleted Yankees Roster

Can you believe we’re already at the end of July? Not only that, but the trade deadline isn’t today. I get that they want it on a Monday or whatever, but it feels weird to have it on August 3. The All-Star Game represents the first hurdle for contenders to clear, but the trade deadline is the true line of demarcation between contenders and pretenders. There won’t be any of the latter on the North Side for a while, as the Cubs have to face the Yankees and Dodgers over the next six games.

The good news is that Shōta Imanaga was bumped back a day to face a depleted roster that is currently without Aaron Judge (ribs), Giancarlo Stanton (take your pick), and Cody Bellinger (hamstring). Stanton was placed on the 10-day IL back in late April, but has not played since and has not been placed on the 60-day IL despite being diagnosed with two additional calf strains since. It’s such a weird situation for a guy who hasn’t played 140 or more games since 2018.

Being without two dangerous right-handed bats and a left-handed hitter who has traditionally hit southpaws very well makes this lineup much more susceptible to Imanaga’s wiles. Though the Yankees have pretty even splits for the season, Judge has only been out a little less than two weeks. Ben Rice is their most dangerous hitter by far, and his left-handed stroke is much better against righties. He’s still got a 137 wRC+ against southpaws, though, so it’s not like he’s a slouch.

Imanaga has looked incredible over his last five starts, and he’s going on an extra day of rest. That should be enough, provided the offense wakes back up after a pair of games that featured very little scoring through the early innings of the last two games in St. Louis.

Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center, then it’s Pedro Ramírez moving up to the two-hole as the third baseman. Michael Busch is at first, Alex Bregman is the DH, Ian Happ is in left, and Nico Hoerner mans second. Michael Conforto is in right, Dansby Swanson takes short, and Miguel Amaya does the catching.

Going for the visitors is righty Will Warren, who looks younger than his 27 years. The Brandon, MS native attended Jackson Preparatory School in nearby Flowood and then matriculated at Southeastern Louisiana. He was selected in the eighth round of the 2021 draft and moved through the system in under three seasons, quickly establishing himself as a trusted back-end starter.

Warren has been very steady over his first two full years at the MLB level, posting very similar numbers across both traditional and advanced categories. He’s like what I hope for in high school and travel umpires: If you can’t be good, at least be consistent. Knowing you’re going to get a performance that is just a little worse than league average is perfectly acceptable when you can count on it every fifth day.

Or perhaps it’s better to say you can count on it at the end of each season, because Warren isn’t very metronomic from game to game. He’s got four games with five or more earned runs allowed, then six more with one or no runs allowed. He’s struck out three or fewer eight times while striking out seven or more in five games. That can happen when you have two decent pitches and three bad ones, as things can either click or clunk depending on what’s working that particular day.

Warren throws from a three-quarter slot and his 93-94 mph fastball doesn’t have any outstanding movement qualities. He also tends to leave it right in the heart of the zone, though he’ll elevate often enough that it can play. The 93 mph sinker is another story, as it tends to wind up in the middle between belt and thighs. His 84 mph sweeper does more of the same, making it very bad when it hags and pretty good when he can get it off the glove-side edge.

The 87 mph changeup that he throws almost exclusively to left-handed hitters can be very effective when he’s keeping it up just enough to avoid being spit on. It’s helped him to maintain much more even splits this season, though part of that comes from righties hitting him better. Things really even up when he’s on the road, where handedness is more or less irrelevant. He’s also been much worse away from Yankee Stadium, and there’s a brisk wind blowing out to left today.

That should favor the Cubs, but they’ll want to take advantage early to avoid another nail-biter like the last two. First pitch is at 1:20pm CT on Marquee and The Score.