ST. LOUIS – If I say “Seiya Suzuki” and “defense,” what comes to your minds, Cubs fans?
Do you immediately jump to the fly ball he dropped in Atlanta at the close of the 2023 season? Does it color your opinion of Suzuki as a defender?
Maybe Ivan Herrera is in the same camp. After all, the Cardinals catcher chose to take off for third base in the ninth inning Saturday night, likely not thinking Suzuki would throw him out with an on-the-money, highlight-reel chuck from right field.
But that’s what happened.
Seiya Suzuki makes a PERFECT throw to nab the runner at 3rd! 😮 pic.twitter.com/GOk7JfB85x
— MLB (@MLB) May 31, 2026
Maybe it’s about time everyone — fans, opposing players, everyone — realized what kind of defender Suzuki can be.
“The last few years, with my defense, I think there was a little bit of worry,” Suzuki said after the Cubs’ win Saturday. “But coming into this year, I felt good.”
He mostly has looked good, too, at least to his teammates, who have noticed someone who has prioritized improving his defense.
“It’s never been an ability thing,” shortstop Dansby Swanson told the Sun-Times on Sunday. “I think Seiya might have more talent than anybody on our team. Just the things he’s capable of doing, it’s so impressive.
“For him to be almost humble enough to know he’s got things that he can work on and get better at — and also go work on them and get better at them — kind of shows who he is and how much he cares about his craft and being a good player.”
That’s a big deal, obviously, for a Cubs team that has built a reputation around playing sensational defense. Swanson is one of five Gold Glovers in the every-day lineup, alongside second baseman Nico Hoerner, third baseman Alex Bregman, left fielder Ian Happ and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
But just because Suzuki and first baseman Michael Busch aren’t award winners for their defense doesn’t mean they’re not quality defenders.
After winning the team Gold Glove last season, the Cubs again rank as the best defensive team in baseball, according to multiple metrics such as Outs Above Average and Fielding Run Value.
They’re flashing leather all over the field, and no opposing hitter or baserunner is safe.
“It really sets our team up to have a lot of success,” Swanson said, “because when you make other teams earn their way on base, earn their way around the bases, it can make it really, really hard. It can be like a suffocating type of feeling, just because all over the diamond, we have guys that are capable of doing some pretty special things.
“It is one of the calling cards of this group, our defensive ability.”
But as impressive as Suzuki’s throw was, as improved a defender as he has become, he is here to hit.
Suzuki is batting .244/.332/.395 with seven home runs in 46 games. The batting average and on-base percentage are comparable to how they looked in 2025, but a middle-of-the-order hitter — Suzuki hit 32 homers last year, two off the team lead — is expected to produce more in the power department.
“There’s good at-bats in there, some bad at-bats,’’ he said. ‘‘But I think the amount of good at-bats are increasing, and I’m trying to figure everything out one at-bat at a time. Even if I’m not hitting well, I can focus on defense and try to help the team there, too. But I’m trying to get that offense going.”
The total-package version of Suzuki is the kind of player the Cubs can use to achieve their sky-high, championship-level goals. And this might be their last chance to do so; Suzuki is due to hit free agency at the end of the season.
Until then, he’s a critical part of their winning formula — on both sides of the ball.