Chicago Cubs make a huge splash with Seiya Suzuki signing

The Chicago Cubs made a huge splash in the free-agent market. Less than 12 hours after learning that Anthony Rizzo is going back to the New York Yankees, they have come to terms with international free agent Seiya Suzuki. 

The Japanese star outfielder, according to David Kaplan of ESPN 1000 and NBC Sports Chicago, is on a five-year deal worth 70 million dollars. This is a huge move for the Cubs as they try to get back to their winning ways.

Seiya Suzuki is an incredibly talented baseball player who has a lot of hype. He dropped the pitching part of his game so he isn’t the next Shohei Ohtani but he could be a really good hitter like him. The Cubs are hoping that he is somewhat similar in that aspect.

Moves like this are risky. 70 million dollars is a lot for someone who has never played Major League Baseball before. This league is a lot different than anything he has ever seen so it will be interesting to see how he adjusts.

Seiya Suzuki is coming to the Chicago Cubs on a five-year deal at $70 million.

To be honest, it is okay to be excited about this. Suzuki, as mentioned before, may not be Ohtani but he could be a very big part of the Chicago Cubs lineup. They desperately needed someone like Suzuki and now they got him. It only took one late-night meeting with Tom Ricketts to get it done.

Suzuki joins a very interesting lineup. We don’t know the future of Willson Contreras so that needs to be the next thing sorted out. If these two have guys like Frank Schwindel, Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal, and Ian Happ amongst others playing at the top of their game, it could be a really nice group.

At this point of the post-lockout offseason, Suzuki’s MLB production could be the key to 2022 Chicago Cubs’ success. The Cincinnati Reds have sold off almost their whole team and the Pittsburgh Pirates were already terrible so it is just down to the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers at this point.

This feels like a winner for the Chicago Cubs. They added an international player from Japan who has a lot of hype in a year where the expectations are mixed. If he fails, the Cubs will be what we thought they were.

If he is amazing, they could take advantage of the extra playoff berth in each league. This is something to be excited about for Chicago Cubs baseball.