At the yesterday’s Cubs Convention in Chicago, manager Craig Counsell spoke to the crowd (video link) about the club’s outfield mix and clarified the Cubs’ outfield plans for the year. As Counsell lays things out, Ian Happ and Pete Crow-Armstrong will remain entrenched as the club’s regulars in left field and center field respectively, while offseason acquisition Kyle Tucker will take over as the regular right fielder.
That’s generally agreed to be the Cubs’ best defensive alignment as things stand and has seemed to be the most likely outcome ever since the Cubs acquired Tucker last month. With that being said, one side effect of making Tucker the club’s regular right fielder is that incumbent right fielder Seiya Suzuki will be pushed to DH on a regular basis this year. That’s a reality Counsell acknowledged, noting that Suzuki will DH “a lot” this season.
“We talked to Seiya this week about that, and he understands that, and he’s on board with that,” Counsell said, and he went on to note that they view Suzuki as an “extra outfielder” who can fill in for Happ and Tucker in the event of an injury.
Even so, it’s notable that the Cubs appear committed to Suzuki as a primary DH in 2025. Suzuki’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, spoke to reporters during the Winter Meetings last month about Suzuki and made clear that his client wanted to play the field. Wolfe even suggested that Suzuki likely “would not have signed with a team” who pitched being their everyday DH to him in free agency. Those comments helped to stoke trade rumors surrounding Suzuki throughout December, and while they started to die down after the club traded Cody Bellinger to the Yankees his name has continued to come up on occasion in the rumor mill.
Counsell’s comments yesterday seemingly put that conversation to bed, indicating that the club and Suzuki have resolved whatever discord may have existed between the sides over the issue. Given that Tucker is Gold Glove award winner who trails only Mookie Betts and Aaron Judge in Defensive Runs Saved as a right fielder since he made his MLB debut in 2018, perhaps Suzuki is more willing to move off of his natural position in deference to him than he was for Bellinger, who was an average defender in right field (+0 Fielding Run Value, +1 DRS) last year.
Even with Suzuki, Tucker, Crow-Armstrong, and Happ set to be regulars for the club in 2025, there appears to be a need for at least one more outfield-capable player on the roster. While Suzuki can seamlessly shift to a corner in the event that Happ or Tucker either needs a day off or heads to the injured list, there’s no clear backup to Crow-Armstrong on the club’s roster after the Cubs non-tendered Mike Tauchman back in November. Happ has the most center field experience of the club’s other regulars, but he hasn’t played a single inning there in the past two years and was last a regular fixture at the position back in 2020.
Alexander Canario and Kevin Alcántara are both on the club’s 40-man roster and capable of playing center field, although Canario has almost exclusively been used in the corners to this point in his big league career and the Cubs may prefer to avoid using a top prospect like Alcántara in a bench role. Should the club look for an external option capable of playing center field amid their reported search for additional bench depth, Michael A. Taylor and Kevin Pillar are among the bench center fielders still available in free agency.
