Welcome back to the Cubs Beat newsletter. Jordan Bastian has covered baseball for MLB.com since 2005, including the Cubs since the 2019 season.

CHICAGO -- The first heavy snowfall of the winter crushed Chicagoland this past week, making it the perfect time to start thinking about warm summer days and the arrival of the baseball season. Plenty of fans will be doing just that downtown this weekend, when they brave the elements to attend Cubs Convention.

Cubs Con gets rolling with Friday’s opening ceremonies and continues through the weekend with a long list of activities, panels and experiences at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. With that in mind, let’s run down five Cubs storylines as the convention arrives and Spring Training looms.

1) Hello, Shōta

The Cubs emerged from their winter hibernation this week, agreeing to a four-year, $53 million contract with free-agent lefty Shōta Imanaga. The deal could grow to five years and $80 million and includes other escalators as part of the pact. It marked the first Major League addition of the offseason for Chicago.

The deal came to fruition before Imanaga’s 45-day posting window was set to expire on Thursday – allowing him to make the jump to MLB rather than head back to Japan with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. The signing also happens to arrive just in time for the Cubs to roll out their latest rotation piece as part of Cubs Convention.

Imanaga helps fill the rotation vacancy left by Marcus Stroman’s decision to opt out of his Cubs deal in favor of free agency. He should slot near the top of a starting staff that features Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Kyle Hendricks, with a crop of younger arms jockeying for position behind that group.

2) What’s next for the Cubs?

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer will be on hand at the convention to hold court with media and chat with fans. It will be an opportunity to hear Hoyer’s thoughts on what has been a relatively quiet offseason to date for his club. This is a team that wants to contend in 2024, and there is still work to be done.

The hope would be that Imanaga is just the start. The North Siders still have a need for offensive help – with center fielder Cody Bellinger being the obvious free-agent target. Names like Matt Chapman and Rhys Hoskins also continue to be linked to the North Siders. The Cubs also need to add more pitching depth, especially in the bullpen.

3) Counsell's first CubsCon

The Cubs opened their offseason by hiring manager Craig Counsell away from the rival Brewers via a historic five-year, $40 million deal. Counsell has experienced offseason fan fests with Milwaukee in the past, but Cubs Convention can be quite an experience. This will be Counsell’s first chance to interact in person with the pile of Cubs fans who flock downtown for the annual event.

Counsell should probably expect a warm welcome, considering he chose the Cubs over staying with their rivals up I-94 or heading elsewhere. This will be the new manager’s chance to introduce his coaching staff, field fan questions and set the overall tone and expectations both for the team and its diehards.

4) New Cubs Hall of Famer(s)

A year ago, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts used the opening ceremonies to announce that Mark Grace and Shawon Dunston would be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame. He threw in the fact that Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg will be getting a statue outside Wrigley Field. Expect the Cubs to unveil a new member or two for the club’s 2024 Hall of Fame class during this weekend’s festivities.

5) A glimpse into what's coming

Beyond the current Major League team, plus a long list of Cubs alumni, CubsCon also gives fans a peek into the future of the franchise. More than half of MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospect list for the Cubs will be in attendance at this weekend’s fan fest. That includes top prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong, along with recent first-round picks like Cade Horton (No. 2) and Matt Shaw (No. 6), among others.

Jan. 11, 1977: The Cubs shipped outfielder Rick Monday and righty Mike Garman to the Dodgers in a five-player swap that netted first baseman Bill Bucker, shortstop Iván de Jesús and righty Jeff Albert. This wound up being an important deal for the long-term future of the North Siders.

Albert never reached the Majors and was out of baseball by ‘79. Buckner hit .300 over eight seasons with the Cubs, winning a batting title in ‘80 and making an All-Star team in ‘81. The real win took place five years later, when the Cubs shipped the light-hitting de Jesús to the Phillies for Larry Bowa and Sandberg, who hit .167 in 13 games in his first taste of the Majors in ‘81.

Sandberg, of course, went on to become a Cubs legend and Hall of Famer. Over a 15-year career with the North Siders, the second baseman had 10 All-Star nods, nine Gold Glove Awards, seven Silver Slugger trophies and won the National League MVP Award as part of the 1984 team that brought the Cubs back to the playoffs for the first time since 1945.

How many Japanese-born pitchers have made at least one regular-season start for the Cubs in team history?

A) Two

B) Three

C) Four

D) Five

Rather than having the annual salary-exchange deadline for arbitration-eligible players on Friday (as written in the previous newsletter), MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to move the process up to Thursday. As a refresher, the Cubs’ remaining arbitration class includes Adbert Alzolay, Mark Leiter Jr., Nick Madrigal, Julian Merryweather, Justin Steele and Mike Tauchman. Chicago already avoided arbitration with Patrick Wisdom (one-year, $2.725 million) in November.

• Cubs connected to multiple remaining free-agents. Read more>>

• PCA picked as best defensive prospect in Pipeline poll. Read more>>

• Cubs announce promotions in baseball ops department. Read more>>

• Who should have been picked No. 1 in every MLB Draft? Read more>>

A) Two

Once Imanaga makes a start for the North Siders, he will join Yu Darvish (51 times) and Tsuyoshi Wada (20) as the only pitchers born in Japan to make at least one start for the Cubs. Koji Uehara, Kyuji Fujikawa and Hisanori Takahashi also pitched for Chicago, but only in relief.

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