The Cubs are placing outfielder Seiya Suzuki on the 10-day injured list to begin the season, manager Craig Counsell confirmed to reporters Monday (link via Patrick Mooney of The Athletic). He’s been slowed by a sprained posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. The Cubs were already planning to select the contract of non-roster Michael Conforto with Suzuki ailing, but it wasn’t yet clear whether he’d require a stint on the IL or just be unavailable for the first series of the season or so.
On the pitching side of the roster, the Cubs optioned righty Javier Assad to Triple-A Iowa, where he’ll continue to work as a starter. He’d been in consideration for a bullpen role but will stay stretched out in Des Moines. Right-hander Ben Brown has nabbed the final bullpen spot behind Daniel Palencia, Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb, Caleb Thielbar and Colin Rea.
Suzuki, 31, played in a career-high 151 games last season and slashed .245/.326/.478 with a career-high 32 home runs in 651 plate appearances. It was the former NPB star’s fourth above-average season at the plate in four years since coming over from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s entering the final season of a five-year, $85MM contract and will once again be a free agent following the 2026 season.
With Suzuki shelved, the Cubs will turn to Conforto and perhaps a combination of non-roster invitee Dylan Carlson and/or former top prospect Kevin Alcantara. Both are still in camp and are candidates for a bench mix that has yet to be finalized by the team. Conforto and Carlson signed minor league deals hoping to rebound from career-worst performances with the Dodgers and Orioles, respectively, in 2025. Alcantara has long ranked among the top prospects in Chicago’s system, but his stock has slipped in recent years as he’s shown a huge penchant for strikeouts in Triple-A.
Assad, 27, missed more than half the 2025 season with a severe oblique strain. He pitched only 37 MLB frames and worked to a 3.65 ERA with a poor 15% strikeout rate but quality walk and ground-ball rates of 7.8% and 47.8%. Since making his MLB debut back in 2022, Assad has bounced between the rotation and the bullpen, combining for a 3.43 ERA. He’s typically posted strikeout and walk rates a bit worse than league average. Assad is being paid a guaranteed $1.8MM this season and is controllable for two more years via arbitration. This is the second of the Cubs’ three minor league option years on Assad.
Brown, 26, was hit hard in 106 1/3 innings last year, yielding a 5.92 ERA. Brown showed slightly better results as a reliever (4.99 ERA) than as a starter (6.30 ERA), but his rate stats out of the bullpen were vastly superior. Most notably, he fanned 23.8% of opponents as a starter but 30.5% as a reliever. He also allowed far fewer home runs working out of the bullpen. Brown has one minor league option remaining and is controllable for five more seasons.
Owen Caissie to the rescue! Oh wait, they traded him for an inconsistent starting pitcher who is consistently an injury risk. Oops…
That was almost clever.
If by clever you mean spot-on, then yes.
It’s hard to be rescued by a guy that will strike out a third of the time
That wasn’t clever at all.
Cubs said they were going to have Brown and Assad keep stretched out in Iowa. Guess what they lied again. They do that a lot. If you want a reason why the Brewers beat the Cubs look no further than the Brewers draft and play their prospects and the Cubs keep spending money on washed losers every year and throwing money away. Terrible Management. Maybe Ricketts owns half of Iowa too. It’s probably cheap enough because that’s where careers go to die.
@Uncle: Agree. But it’s also that the Cubs’ prospects are not as good as the Brewers’ in the first place.
You don’t know that because they never get a chance. Oh maybe a week here a week there. Whenever a guy should get a chance he gets shuffled out somewhere. For another Jed shiny object.
Haven’t we had just about enough of Suzuki’s annual avoidable long-term injuries? How can a player reach his level without having learned to slide without hurting himself? And this time he didn’t even do it for the Cubs, but for some ersatz gimmick team in the World Baseball Yawn-fest. He is a lot more trouble than his occasional short stretches of good hitting are worth. It will be good to see him go after this season.
As for Assad, I suppose he will be back soon, but I won’t miss him in the meantime. He tries hard, but his ceiling is so low. On his very best days he’ll go 5.1 innings and give up 2 runs and leave with runners on second and third. That’s not good enough.
What makes you think Suzuki is leaving? They’ll re sign him. I probably won’t live to see the Kepley, PCA, and Conrad OF but it’s probably a dream anyway because they’ll be traded for rentals and dregs like the rest.
Assad > Brown