{"id":508133,"date":"2026-03-06T23:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508133\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T23:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:26:09","slug":"cubs-could-lose-32-home-run-slugger-in-free-agency-for-pete-crow-armstrong-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508133\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs could lose 32 home run slugger in free agency for Pete Crow-Armstrong reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cubs could lose 32 home run slugger in free agency for Pete Crow-Armstrong reason<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, the Chicago Cubs<\/a> would manage to find a way to keep all three of their starting outfielders after this season.<\/p>\n

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However, both Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki will reach free agency<\/a> at the end of the year. It seems likely that the NL Central club will have the capacity and financial means to re-sign only one of the two fan favorites.<\/p>\n

That’s especially true if Pete Crow-Armstrong signs a long-term extension at a significantly high average annual value. If that’s the case, who’s in and who’s out for the Cubs?<\/p>\n

FanSided’s Zachary Rotman <\/a>believes there’s a clear route they should take.<\/p>\n

Cubs predicted to prioritize Happ over Suzuki<\/p>\n

Making his Major League debut in 2017, Happ is the longest tenured player on the Cubs’ roster and a winner of four straight Gold Glove Awards in left field.<\/p>\n

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“They’re both 31 years old, but Happ is the more well-rounded player<\/a>, making Suzuki the easier player to let walk on the open market,” Rotman wrote in February.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Suzuki hit 32 home runs compared to Happ’s 23. The Japanese slugger also edged his teammate in SLG % and OPS, but Happ is a much better defender and a switch-hitter.<\/p>\n

Suzuki is mostly limited to DH duties, which should only increase as he nears his mid-thirties.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cubs could lose 32 home run slugger in free agency for Pete Crow-Armstrong reason originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[479,25916,363,4261,37318,99,188969],"class_list":{"0":"post-508133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-chicago-cubs","9":"tag-ian-happ","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-pete-crow-armstrong","12":"tag-seiya-suzuki","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-zachary-rotman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}