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Cubs finally got that long-desired consistency from Seiya Suzuki this season
Suzuki finished the year with some of the best offensive numbers of his MLB career.
Seiya Suzuki had another exceptional offensive season for the Cubs. He finished with the seventh-highest wRC+ (138) and eighth-highest OPS (.848) in the National League. Both marked career-highs for him, as he also posted a career-best .366 OBP and 21 homers. Overall he hit .283/.366/.482 with 21 homers and 73 RBI in 132 games.
Interestingly, despite the number of career-highs, his overall season was statistically almost identical to 2023. Compare his 2024 stats above to his numbers from 2023 - .285/.357/.485 with a .842 OPS, 20 home runs, 74 RBI and 128 wRC+ in 138 games. The slash is nearly identical as are the home runs and RBI. Even the number of games played was similar as he missed time in 2023 and 2024 with oblique injuries.
What makes 2024 stand out was seeing Suzuki hit with a bit more consistency. In 2023 he had a rough mid-season before going on a tear in August and September, hitting .350/.406/.667 over his final 50 games to get him to those end-of-season marks. He was hitting just .249/.330/.383 over his first 88 games that year, including a 50-game stretch in which he hit just .223. In 2024, the ups and downs were not quite as dramatic.
Fewer ups and downs paid off for Seiya Suzuki this season
Here is how Suzuki fared by month at the plate in 2024:
- March and April: .305/.368/.525
- May: 219/.275/.329
- June: .258/.346/.505
- July: 299/.376/.546
- August: .287/.354/.495
- September: .329/.457/.471
May was the worst part of Suzuki's 2024 season by far, as he was working back from the oblique injury he suffered in mid-April. Otherwise in the other five months he played he slugged over .470 with an OBP above .345 and had an OPS between .849 and .928. While in 2023 he posted an OPS north of 1.000 in two months (August and September of '23), and none in 2024, Suzuki also had three months in 2023 in which his OPS was between just .475 and .706 (April, June and July). To put this all in perspective, the range in OPS by month in 2023 was .645 while the range in OPS by month in 2024 was .324 - a notable difference in monthly OPS variance over those two seasons.
All this to say, Suzuki did not experience the dramatic peaks and valleys this year like he did the last season Remember, Suzuki was benched in mid-2023 because of his struggles. Outside a brief rough stretch coming back from injury in May, he was hitting consistently over the last three to four months (.292/.382/.505 from June through September). He did seem to find more comfort as a DH after struggling with routine plays in right early/mid-season but even when he started the year healthy he was hitting.
If healthy in 2025, could he reach another level? In an ideal world, Suzuki inches close to that 30-homer mark given the Cubs' need of more slug in the lineup. However, if what we witnessed the last two years is his ceiling, it's nothing to scoff at. The real test? Getting a game-changing bat to slot in the heart of the order alongside Suzuki, taking some of the pressure off him and letting him do what he does best.
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