Seiya Suzuki Is The Cubs' Quiet Juggernaut

When you live in a garden as vibrant with flourishing life as the Chicago Cubs is, some flowers go unnoticed. It doesn't take a botanist or a baseball analyst to tell you how stunning a season Suzuki is having; all one must do is tune in and watch. 

After some increasingly agonizing blunders playing in right field the past couple of seasons, Suzuki, a fan favorite since arriving with the club in 2022, is turning in a career year in 2025 as a designated hitter for the Chicago Cubs. Were he not teammates with superstar center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, Suzuki would indeed hog much more of the spotlight. The double headliner of Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong, as it turns out, is one of the more exhilarating offense tandems in baseball, and a painfully enviable bromance. Likely to shatter his output from recent past seasons, Seiya Suzuki's full potential has been unlocked, and the ramifications of that serve to keep his squad in the mix for a World Series run. 

Even though you wouldn't know it after checking the box scores from the Cubs' most current stretch of games, they're top-to-bottom a feverishly proficient offensive club.

Part of how they get their runs across the plate is by way of the long ball. As of the time of this writing, the Cubs have launched 104 home runs, nearly a quarter of them have come off the bat of Crow-Armstrong, but nearly another quarter of them have been deposited in the seats courtesy of Seiya Suzuki. 

Notoriously an aggressive hitter, Suzuki possesses undeniable power that has been curtailed only by a string of consistent injuries since his arrival from Japan. With 61 RBI as of this writing, Suzuki will comically eclipse several of his figures from past seasons. He has jumped all over fastballs this season, checking in with an improbable .557 slugging percentage on four-seamers. Some of this is due to the fact that he has vastly reinforced protection in the lineup, but another large part of it is that this is just the type of player Suzuki has always been. He's healthier, unencumbered by the follies of his outfield play, and mentally freed from the fear of striking out. 

Out of nowhere, the North Siders have a juggernaut designated hitter. He's still not without his pitfalls. As dominant as Suzuki is with blasting fastballs, he's still confounded by offspeed pitches. In 2024, Suzuki had a sobering 40.7% whiff rate, which has decreased to 31.6% this year, but that's still far from ideal. 

I don't mean to sound idyllic, but this Chicago Cubs squad, even while figuring out some relative adversity, is a tough out. Seiya Suzuki and his powerhouse offense are making sure his team stays on the field well into October. Cubs fans are known for their knowledge of the game and giving out flowers when they're earned, now is the time they hand a few out to their designated hitter. He tends to move in silence, but his impact is louder than ever.