{"id":639420,"date":"2026-03-23T19:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/639420\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T19:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:09:20","slug":"seiya-suzuki-starts-season-on-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/639420\/","title":{"rendered":"Seiya Suzuki starts season on IL"},"content":{"rendered":"

MESA, Ariz. \u2014 Seiya Suzuki\u2019s PCL sprain in his right knee will force the Chicago Cubs right fielder to begin the season on the injured list.<\/p>\n

Suzuki had already been ruled out for opening day<\/a> on Thursday at Wrigley Field and was trending towards going on the 10-day IL.<\/p>\n

Manager Craig Counsell confirmed Monday that the Cubs will put Suzuki on the IL, a move that can be backdated to Sunday. Suzuki would be eligible to rejoin the Cubs as soon as April 1, the final game of the first homestand, but Counsell said it was too soon to say when Suzuki would be ready.<\/p>\n

Counsell estimated the April 3-5 series in Cleveland would be the first day the Cubs would consider activating Suzuki. The Cubs are still determining whether Suzuki will stay back at the team\u2019s spring training complex in Arizona to rehab or join them in Chicago. Suzuki planned to test his knee on Monday by running and hitting in the cage off the Trajekt machine.<\/p>\n

The Cubs won\u2019t activate Suzuki until he can run full speed and change direction without issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to have a good week,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cI think then we can start to more accurately tell you when he\u2019s gonna be back. \u2026 We\u2019ve just got to keep taking steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs also finalized their opening-day pitching staff on Monday after optioning right-hander Javier Assad to Triple-A Iowa and informing right-hander Ben Brown<\/a> that he would be used out of the bullpen. Assad will start for Iowa to provide depth.<\/p>\n

Counsell prepared Brown for his relief role by using him in one- and two-inning appearances in his last two Cactus League appearances. Brown and right-hander Colin Rea will give Counsell multiple multi-inning relievers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Brown stands with other Cubs pitchers before warming up during the first full-squad workout at spring training Feb. 16, 2026, at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cHis schedule has been a little wonky since he\u2019s been back (from the World Baseball Classic),\u201d Counsell said of Assad. \u201cSo he\u2019s actually not fully starter-stretched out. He\u2019s in a fine place. \u2026 He\u2019s healthy and he\u2019s ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially we made a decision to prioritize two length options in the bullpen to start the season, just kind of knowing with the nature of the schedule, the nature of where our starters are at and relievers are at to start a season that you want to be careful with workloads and thinking that two guys with length ability can really help manage the innings workload early in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs have two bench decisions remaining before submitting their 26-man roster Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Outfielders Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara and Dylan Carlson and infielder Scott Kingery are their internal big-league camp options to fill out their bench.<\/p>\n

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and the front office are continuing to monitor transactions around the league to potentially bring in an external option. The Cubs ideally would like to have another infielder on the bench beyond Matt Shaw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MESA, Ariz. \u2014 Seiya Suzuki\u2019s PCL sprain in his right knee will force the Chicago Cubs right fielder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,24,81781,81782,81784,81783,4,18513,105,81780,80405],"class_list":["post-639420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-cubs-roster","tag-chicago-cubs-roster-news","tag-cubs-opening-day","tag-cubs-opening-day-roster","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-opening-day","tag-seiya-suzuki","tag-seiya-suzuki-il","tag-seiya-suzuki-injury"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116280071038737147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}