{"id":665633,"date":"2026-04-06T01:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665633\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T01:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:56:13","slug":"cubs-hope-to-regain-seiya-suzuki-ahead-of-divisional-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665633\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs hope to regain Seiya Suzuki ahead of divisional series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/chicago-cubs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Cubs<\/a>\u2019 offense has taken its time to get going this season, as the NL Central contenders are currently hitting with the fifth-lowest batting average in the league (.206) and the sixth-lowest slugging percentage (.335).<\/p>\n<p>This would\u2019ve come as a surprise to hear during the offseason after the signing of former Silver Slugger Alex Bregman, who is currently hitting .214\/.313\/.429 across his seven appearances season.<\/p>\n<p>But there could be another reason for the Cubs\u2019 lackluster start to the 2026 season: the absence of their star slugger Seiya Suzuki, who has been out for some time due to an injury suffered while playing for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n<p>Last season for Chicago, Suzuki was on fire, hitting for .245\/.326\/.478, while smashing a career-high 32 home runs and bringing in 103 RBIs. So just to reiterate, the Cubs were certain to miss such a productive player.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Counsell gives an update on Suzuki\u2019s return<\/p>\n<p>Despite practicing with Chicago throughout the opening slate of games, the Japanese slugger has been with the Cubs\u2019 Triple-A affiliate, the Knoxville Smokies, appearing in some rehab matches to get him up to speed.<\/p>\n<p>In his two appearances for Knoxville, Suzuki has been raking, hitting with a batting average of .333 with six hits to his name.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Per <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Cubs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">#Cubs<\/a> Craig Counsell, Seiya Suzuki will stay on rehab assignment Tuesday\/Wednesday and rejoin the team Friday in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Taylor McGregor (@Taylor_McGregor) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Taylor_McGregor\/status\/2040939871787733353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">April 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But it seems that the 31-year-old isn\u2019t destined to stay there much longer, as Cubs manager Craig Counsell gave an update on Sunday, explaining that Suzuki will make a few more appearances in the coming days before returning to the Major League roster, as reported by Taylor McGregor.<\/p>\n<p>If that timetable is accurate, Suzuki would rejoin Chicago as they take on their divisional rivals, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/pittsburgh-pirates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>, for a three-game series spanning the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be yet another storyline for Cubs fans and baseball fans alike to focus on as the season continues to progress.<\/p>\n<p>More MLB news:<\/p>\n<p>                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs\u2019 offense has taken its time to get going this season, as the NL Central contenders&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-665633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116355280736393289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665633","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=665633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}