The Cubs wrap up a three-game series with the Guardians this evening. Yesterday the team was celebrating Pete Crow-Armstrong’s and Kyle Tucker’s election to the All-Star Game as starting outfielders, however, I want to take a closer look at another Cubs hitter who certainly deserving of a roster spot on the National League squad in Atlanta: Seiya Suzuki.
Seiya is having an outstanding season at the plate slashing .261/.319/.550 with a wRC+ of 137 across 364 plate appearances so far this season. He’s already hit a career high 23 home runs this season. Impressively, it looks like there may be some room for positive regression to the mean in some of his numbers. His BABIP is a career low .292, almost 40 points lower than his career norm of .337. You can see his most recent long ball below [VIDEO].
However, for All-Star purposes, the more important element is where Seiya’s performance sits relative to other designated hitters in the league. This is where things get a little tricky, for a two reasons. First, the starting DH spot in the NL is already taken by the National League’s top vote getter: Shohei Ohtani. Second, while teams do traditionally bring a reserve DH to the All Star Game, there is generally just a single DH reserve spot per league. At least if the 2024 and 2023 rosters are any indication.
And while Seiya’s performance has been excellent this season, it’s unclear he’s in the top two designated hitters in the National League this season because of two players. First up, our old friend Kyle Schwarber who’s slashing .247/.380/.532 with a wRC+ of 150 and 26 home runs through 384 plate appearances. While Seiya edges out Schwarber in average, Kyle has the edge in both on-base ability and pure power.
That said, Schwarber might find himself on the outside looking in on this year’s festivities in Atlanta too thanks to a blockbuster trade that sent one of the American League’s top designated hitters, Rafael Devers, to the San Francisco Giants in June. Devers has slashed .260/.384/.477 with a wRC+ of 138 and 17 home runs for two teams this season.
It will be a tight race amongst three of the league’s best hitters to make the roster in Atlanta, and while I think Seiya’s made as strong of a case as anyone to play in his first MLB All Star Game in a little under two weeks he may fall just short. Unfortunately, even the strongest All Star cases sometimes get edged out by other players, especially with a position as stacked as designated hitter is this year in the National League.
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