{"id":552173,"date":"2026-03-22T00:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552173\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T00:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:02:11","slug":"seiya-suzuki-to-miss-cubs-opener-after-knee-injury-in-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552173\/","title":{"rendered":"Seiya Suzuki to miss Cubs’ opener after knee injury in WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mar 21, 2026, 07:52 PM ET<\/p>\n

MESA, Ariz. — Seiya Suzuki<\/a> will miss the Chicago Cubs<\/a>‘ season opener after suffering a minor ligament strain in his right knee during the World Baseball Classic, manager Craig Counsell said Saturday.<\/p>\n

The team was mulling whether to place him on the injured list.<\/p>\n

“Opening Day is not going to happen,” Counsell said. “[He’s] not going to be ready to play on Opening Day. We’ve got to make a decision. Once you get past Opening Day, we’ve got to make a decision: Does it just make sense to just give him some time? We’ve got time to make that decision, but that’s kind of where we’re at.”<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

The Cubs open against Washington at Wrigley Field on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Suzuki got hurt in Japan’s 8-5 loss to Venezuela in a World Baseball Classic quarterfinal March 14 in Miami. He walked gingerly to the dugout after a headfirst slide into second base when he was caught stealing in the first inning. Suzuki was replaced in center field after the end of that half-inning.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old returned to the Cubs’ spring training facility on Monday, when he was seen walking slowly with a soft brace on the injured knee. Suzuki underwent imaging to determine the extent of the injury.<\/p>\n

Suzuki is going into the final season of an $85 million, five-year contract. He has hit .269 with 87 home runs and 296 RBIs in 532 games for the Cubs, including a team-leading 103 RBIs with 32 homers in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 21, 2026, 07:52 PM ET MESA, Ariz. — Seiya Suzuki will miss the Chicago Cubs‘ season opener…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-552173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}