{"id":903787,"date":"2026-11-03T00:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/903787\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T00:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:12:09","slug":"cubs-extend-qualifying-offer-to-seiya-suzuki-key-cog-in-lineup-who-could-depart-via-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/903787\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs extend qualifying offer to Seiya Suzuki, key cog in lineup who could depart via free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ll see whether Seiya Suzuki returns to the Cubs<\/a> next season, but the team made an effort to retain his services Monday.<\/p>\n

The Cubs tendered a qualifying offer to the free-agent right fielder, a one-year deal worth $23.15 million. Suzuki has until Nov. 17 to accept. If he declines and signs with another team, the Cubs will get a draft pick in exchange for his departure.<\/p>\n

Suzuki is ranked as one of the top hitters on this offseason\u2019s free-agent market, and with the Cubs geared up to heavily focus their efforts on improving the pitching staff this winter, it would perhaps be unsurprising for another team to land him with a big-money contract.<\/p>\n

But the Cubs know how important Suzuki was to their lineup during the last five seasons, his 128 OPS-plus as a major-leaguer making him 28% more productive than the average hitter.<\/p>\n

Suzuki posted a career-best .368 on-base percentage this season and hit 26 home runs, a total he eclipsed just once previously, when he hit 32 homers in 2025. His 81 walks were his most in a single major league season, and his dramatically improved defense in right field made him a Gold Glove finalist and contributed to a 5.1 bWAR that blew away his previous career high in that category.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back at the five years, I don\u2019t know if I was able to reach the expectations that people had or [that I had] myself. Each year, there was frustration at the end of the year,\u201d Suzuki said through an interpreter. \u201cLooking back at it, I felt I did get better. I worked hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plus was, this last year, that my defense improved a lot, and all that work I put in, that did help me improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, there\u2019s a lot of \u2018what ifs\u2019: Did I meet the expectations people had about me and that I had about myself?\u201d<\/p>\n

The offensive numbers speak to a player who did make a significant contribution<\/a>, and throughout the season, he was for long stretches, quietly, the second-best hitter \u2014 behind MVP favorite Pete Crow-Armstrong \u2014 in a lineup that ended up leading the sport in runs scored.<\/p>\n

Suzuki\u2019s potential departure could create two holes in the Cubs\u2019 outfield, with left fielder Ian Happ also a free agent, though not one expected to demand the sort of interest \u2014 and spending \u2014 Suzuki is.<\/p>\n

But team president Jed Hoyer has hammered home his intention to focus on pitching improvements, possibly pointing to ascensions to more regular playing time in the outfield for in-house candidates such as Matt Shaw or Pedro Ramirez.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family, they love Chicago. But with free agency, that\u2019s something for me. There\u2019s a lot of processes involved with that,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what\u2019s going to happen, but being in Chicago, my family loves it and there\u2019s very good memories with the Cubs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ll see whether Seiya Suzuki returns to the Cubs next season, but the team made an effort to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-903787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903787","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=903787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}