{"id":589226,"date":"2026-04-06T13:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589226\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T13:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:59:11","slug":"cubs-hope-to-regain-seiya-suzuki-ahead-of-divisional-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589226\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs hope to regain Seiya Suzuki ahead of divisional series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/chicago-cubs\/news\/cubs-hope-regain-seiya-suzuki-ahead-divisional-series\/295babeb0c5d35788001ae34?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cubs hope to regain Seiya Suzuki ahead of divisional series;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Cubs hope to regain Seiya Suzuki ahead of divisional series&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Cubs hope to regain Seiya Suzuki ahead of divisional series<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Sporting News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;The Sporting News&quot;}\" class=\"link \">The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Preferred Source by clicking here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/chicago-cubs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Chicago Cubs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Chicago Cubs&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Chicago Cubs<\/a>\u2019 offense has taken its time to get going this season, as the NL Central contenders are currently hitting with the fifth-lowest batting average in the league (.206) and the sixth-lowest slugging percentage (.335).<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This would\u2019ve come as a surprise to hear during the offseason after the signing of former Silver Slugger Alex Bregman, who is currently hitting .214\/.313\/.429 across his seven appearances season.<\/p>\n<p>But there could be another reason for the Cubs\u2019 lackluster start to the 2026 season: the absence of their star slugger Seiya Suzuki, who has been out for some time due to an injury suffered while playing for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n<p>Last season for Chicago, Suzuki was on fire, hitting for .245\/.326\/.478, while smashing a career-high 32 home runs and bringing in 103 RBIs. So just to reiterate, the Cubs were certain to miss such a productive player.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Counsell gives an update on Suzuki\u2019s return<\/p>\n<p>Despite practicing with Chicago throughout the opening slate of games, the Japanese slugger has been with the Cubs\u2019 Triple-A affiliate, the Knoxville Smokies, appearing in some rehab matches to get him up to speed.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>In his two appearances for Knoxville, Suzuki has been raking, hitting with a batting average of .333 with six hits to his name.<\/p>\n<p>But it seems that the 31-year-old isn\u2019t destined to stay there much longer, as Cubs manager Craig Counsell gave an update on Sunday, explaining that Suzuki will make a few more appearances in the coming days before returning to the Major League roster, as reported by Taylor McGregor.<\/p>\n<p>If that timetable is accurate, Suzuki would rejoin Chicago as they take on their divisional rivals, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/pittsburgh-pirates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pittsburgh Pirates;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Pittsburgh Pirates&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>, for a three-game series spanning the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be yet another storyline for Cubs fans and baseball fans alike to focus on as the season continues to progress.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cubs hope to regain Seiya Suzuki ahead of divisional series originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[5154,228235,64,63,111198,5158,14538,43939,16062,189358,5144,591,5160,14536,85,23871],"class_list":{"0":"post-589226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-alex-bregman","9":"tag-appearances","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-brett-baty","13":"tag-chicago-cubs","14":"tag-craig-counsell","15":"tag-knoxville-smokies","16":"tag-luis-robert-jr","17":"tag-mark-vientos","18":"tag-mets","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","21":"tag-seiya-suzuki","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-white-sox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}