Cubs' Seiya Suzuki determined to meet high expectations for this season

John Antonoff/For the Sun-Times

MESA, Ariz. — Right fielder Seiya Suzuki’s hot stretch to end last season wasn’t merely one of those streaks a hitter is bound to have over the course of a season. He made changes to his routine and approach, leaving the Cubs encouraged about his potential at the plate this year.

“I've been able to continue that same type of feeling that I had when I finished the season,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita. “And I still feel like I have that same mentality and feeling coming into this season. So I'm just really excited for it to happen.”

The turning point in Suzuki’s 2023 season came in early August, when then-manager David Ross pulled him from the starting lineup for four straight games against right-handed starting pitchers.

Suzuki’s season had started late, delayed by an oblique strain before the Cubs’ spring training opener. And he hadn’t been able to sustain any offensive rhythm up to that point.

The break provided some new perspective and time to hone mechanics — controlling his leg kick, keeping it consistent and keeping his head still — behind the scenes. But he also was working on refining his routine in the batting cages.

“It was just about creating a plan beforehand and making sure I complete those tasks every day,” Suzuki said. “Prior, I’d get to the field, and I’d decide at that point what I wanted to do.”

Having a set plan, rather than going by feel, helped him condense his work.

“He was always a guy that would take a lot of swings and would work through a little bit longer of a cage routine,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said. “And I think him watching some of our other [veteran] guys and seeing how concise and short they were — [it’s] such a long season — I think it started to get the wheels turning for him a little bit.”

Plate discipline has always been a strength of Suzuki's. But it became a bit of a detriment when he was frequently falling into two-strike counts.

“The mentality of this league right now is it's a little bit of a race to two strikes and then get you to chase,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And so that means early counts are the counts to hit in. And it's super hard being a good hitter in this league with two strikes.”

With Suzuki, the Cubs coaching staff flipped the conversation to focus on how he could use his sharp eye to identify pitches he could do damage on early in the count.

“What it ended up doing, is it just put a little bit more fear into the pitcher of knowing that, hey, he's going to be swinging earlier than what he has been in the past,” Kelly said.

Said Suzuki: “You’ve got to take into consideration the situation of the game, but, yes, staying pretty aggressive throughout the season is going to be one of the main things coming into the season.”

He’s going into this year with the conviction that his midseason adjustments worked as well as anyone could have hoped. From Aug. 9 through the end of the season, Suzuki had the second-best OPS among qualified hitters (1.086), behind only the Braves' Marcell Ozuna. This offseason, Suzuki also focused on baserunning, defense and rotational strength training.

“That's him, and he's capable of that,” Kelly said of the last two months of the 2023 season. “And I don't think we expect much different from him.”

Especially if the Cubs don’t sign another star hitter this spring, they’re going to need Suzuki to pick up some of the offensive production lost when Cody Bellinger became a free agent.

“We need to sign some good stars right now,” Suzuki quipped. “I'm just kidding. But they expect a lot out of me, and I'm going to do my best to make sure I meet those expectations.”