Who is Seiya Suzuki, and where will he land?

The Atlanta Braves won the World Series, and, after going through a comically horrible championship parade, they now have the daunting task of attempting to become the first repeat World Series winner since 2000. The 29 other Major League clubs are all looking to knock the Braves off their throne, and there’s a likely international free agent who could really help accomplish that mission.

Seiya Suzuki is a 27-year-old Japanese outfielder with superstar potential in Major League Baseball. Word on the street is he could be the best Japanese outfield bat since Hideki Matsui. In 2021, Suzuki led the Nippon Professional Baseball League with an 8.4 WAR. He slashed .319/.436/.640 with 38 dingers. You want to know the best part? Suzuki walked more times (88) than he struck out (87). As someone who holds an immense value for plate discipline, that last statistic is just *kisses fingers* icing on the cake!

To put those numbers in perspective, in Shohei Ohtani’s final season in the NPB League, Ohtani slashed .332/.403/.540 with eight home runs in 231 plate appearances and 63 strikeouts to go along with 24 walks. To be fair, Ohtani was just 22 in his final season in Japan, and he missed a lot of the season due to injury. While Suzuki did put up better numbers in his final season with NPB and hasn’t played in fewer than 100 games in a season since 2015, his age is a cause for concern. At 27 years old, it’s hard to imagine that Suzuki has much room to grow as a hitter. On the other hand, we have seen the prime windows of elite MLB talent expand over the past decade or so (Nelson Cruz is still raking at 41), Suzuki’s ceiling appears to be lower compared to Ohtani’s in 2017.

That being said, anyone who can provide similar numbers to Ohtani on offense would be a valuable asset to any team. Plate discipline has especially become a huge part of the game today. With pitcher velocity at an all-time high and analytics reaching for more swing-and-miss strategies than ever before, someone who can lay off those fastballs up in the zone is enormously effective as a hitter. That’s one of the major reasons Juan Soto has developed into one of the game’s best pure hitters. Suzuki will bring the same sort of energy to whichever Major League ball club he signs with. He may not have the same success as Soto, but he has the potential to make a similar impact.

So… which teams could use a bat like Suzuki? Well, all of them. But which teams actually have a chance at signing him? In order to figure this out, I’m going to take a look at a few things: 1) teams with the cash to spend big on a Japanese free agent (let’s face it, the Orioles, Guardians, Marlins, and Pirates don’t have the spending money to acquire someone like Suzuki). He is older than 25 years old, so he will not be limited by MLB’s international spending limits, and 2) teams with a need for an outfielder/strong bat. Here are his most obvious landing spots.

Oh, wow! A big name free agent is available and the Dodgers are in a position to get him? Who would’ve thunk?!

The Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t in need of a talented outfielder. While the Dodgers will have a lot of pitching talent go to free agency this winter (Kershaw, Scherzer, Jansen, Knebel), the only outfielders they’re potentially losing are Chris Taylor and Steven Souza. However, shortstop Corey Seager is also becoming a free agent. So, if the Dodgers retain Chris Taylor — one of the most versatile defenders in MLB and an All-Star in 2021 (so definitely someone they should hold on to and have the money to do so) — they could let Seager walk if they wanted (he’ll probably draw a huge market), move Taylor to shortstop — where he’s played 258 games at in his career — and then sign Suzuki thereby building an outfield of Suzuki, Bellinger, and Betts without losing too much at the shortstop position. Then again, they’re also the Dodgers, so if they really wanted to, they could just keep everyone and sign Suzuki too, because money is an illusion to this ball club.

The Giants have a good amount of money. Oh, and what’s this? Two of the Giants’ biggest contracts are not returning next season, the Giants are unlikely to re-sign Kris Bryant, and the Giants could use a consistent outfield power bat to fill out their lineup? That’s all an enormous coincidence, wouldn’t you say?

The Giants are in a win-now situation. Even with Buster Posey gone next season, the Giants have the prospects at the catcher position — Joey Bart (ready right now) & Patrick Bailey (still a few years away) to continue producing from a normally dead position in the lineup. Their biggest areas of concern should be re-signing Kevin Gausman and finding an outfield bat to round out their lineup which struggled mightily to find an everyday left fielder. Even when Bryant came to town and found a home in centerfield, the Giants didn’t have an everyday left or right fielder. The Giants’ corner outfield positions were a rotating door of LaMonte Wade, Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Slater, Steven Duggar, Alex Dickerson, and Darin Ruf. Suzuki would solve a lot of the team’s problems and alleviate the pressure the Giants probably feel to re-sign Bryant.

Not to mention, the Giants’ offensive surge in 2021 was due in large part to their ability to hit home runs. They led the National League in that category. However, there wasn’t a single member of the Giants who dropped thirty bombs last season. They were great offensively without a huge power bat, so imagine how they’d be if they could add a 30-homer hitter to their lineup.

The Cubs have already expressed interest in the 27-year-old outfielder, and after selling house this past season, the Cubs certainly have enough money to make a splash. If they really wanted to go nuts, they could go out and sign both Suzuki and Bryant… wouldn’t that be something? Not only does Suzuki add a tremendous amount of pop to a Cubs team that ranked 18th in MLB in OPS last season, but he also provides incredible patience at the plate, which is a dire necessity for a Cubs team that led the league in strikeouts in 2021.

Suzuki also provides power from the right side of the plate, a luxury that the Cubs current roster sorely lacks. Two of the Cubs’ three primary outfielders — Rafael Ortega and Jason Heyward — are left-handed hitters. The final outfielder, Ian Happ, is a switch-hitter, and while he does spend most of his time hitting from the right side, he strikes out far too often to be the Cubs’ strongest right-handed bat.

Suzuki would provide stability and would be an incredible piece to rebuild the Cubs franchise with. He is exactly the kind of hitter the Cubs need to take the Windy City back from the clutches of the White Sox. While the addition of Suzuki probably won’t make the Cubs contenders in 2022, it would almost certainly show impending free agents that the Cubs are moving in the right direction. For a team with as much history as the Cubs have, adding Suzuki would make for a really compelling presentation for any and all MLB free agents. That’s how you build a winning team.