Why Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki Leaving Could Be Blessing in Disguise for Cubs

While pitching sits at the forefront of the Chicago Cubs' needs this winter, it shouldn't be overlooked that each of their corner outfield spots will need to be addressed. Following the (assumed) departures of each of Ian Happ & Seiya Suzuki in free agency, the team has bodies to fill in their respective corners but almost no certainty with which to operate. As such, we can assume that at least one of those spots will feature a fresh face in 2027. 

The manner in which the Cubs could address one or both of the spots is anybody's guess. Most of the minuscule free agent & trade buzz thus far has centered around their needs on the mound. However, considering the typical profile of a Chicago Cubs position player, we can at least venture a guess. 

If Jed Hoyer & co. were to assemble a checklist, you're probably looking at something that includes a high-floor player who demonstrates patience at the plate and plays quality defense. The priority on offense is around drumming up walks at a decent clip while swinging efficiently, in a way that trades off bat speed for squared-up contact. It's the profile with which the Cubs have built out most of their lineup fixtures at this point. 

Among last year's regulars, Alex Bregman, Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ, Michael Busch, Carson Kelly, and, to a different extent, Nico Hoerner were all players that represented exactly this kind of skill set. We could even throw Matt Shaw in there. Of that starting group, only Happ featured a fast swing rate over 10 percent and only Hoerner walked at a rate under nine percent. All of them were more-than-respectable defensively, to varying degrees. Again, this is about providing a stable floor that yields a quality walk rate and 20-ish homer power and compensating for any shortcoming or quiet offensive stretch with the glove. 

It's important to note that, in many ways, Seiya Suzuki also fit this kind of profile. While his bat speed came up quite a bit higher than that of his peers, he walked often and played quality defense. But despite swinging at a higher average speed, he was very much cut from the same cloth of virtually each of his lineup comrades not named Pete Crow-Armstrong.

As the Cubs prepare to address the potential departures of each of Happ and Suzuki, it might behoove them to consider stepping outside of this profile that, arguably, accounted for seven of the eight spots in the field. 

The thing about constructing a lineup built out of high-floor guys is that the ceiling is, somewhat naturally, lower. We've previously heard Jed Hoyer express the idea of having players outperform their projections. Outside of Crow-Armstrong and Bregman in the second-half of 2026, most everyone has merely been meeting their expectations, rather than exceeding them. That leads to stretches where the Cubs need a number of players "clicking" at the same time, with questionable output occurring over sustained periods when they're not. It doesn't necessarily make them easier for opposing pitches to prepare for, but certainly stifles offensive production over the longer term. 

Which means that it should be a primary goal of the Cubs this winter to make their lineup more dynamic through those corner outfield spots. More bat speed; more aggression. The 2026 iteration of Pete Crow-Armstrong illustrated the value of a player with louder tools who offers a higher ceiling, even if the floor can be difficult to stomach through certain lapses in plate discipline. 

The benefit of that "louder" skill set is that those types of players can be legitimate drivers of offensive production; harder contact tends to yield more impressive results, after all. The high-floor player can generate traffic on the basepaths, but someone has to be willing to get aggressive to drive them in.

Of course, there is something of an oversimplification in characterizing it this way, and acquiring such a player is easier said than done. The free-agent market doesn't necessarily possess this type of player (save a name like Randy Arozarena), and the Cubs may find it difficult to drum up the resources necessary to acquire one and address their needs on the mound.

That shouldn't stop the pursuit, though. This is a team in need of more variety on offense, and these two vacancies offer them exactly a chance to do it.

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