Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Is Seiya Suzuki still in the Opening Day picture?

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Is Seiya Suzuki still in the Opening Day picture? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Zadi Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, there was
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: some WBC news, some bad news for the Cubs. Before
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• 1:22
  Speaker 1: it was not ideal news for the Cubs. We saw.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I can't remember what day was, maybe Sunday, Saya Suzuki
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: had an awkward slide. I believe he Saturday. Was it Saturday? Okay, Saturday,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Saturday night. It wasn't clear exactly what happened. It seemed
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: like he banged his knee against the ground on a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: very weird, bad slide at first slide into second, came
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: off the field limping. To me watching it, I was like,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: that can't be that bad of an injury because there
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: was no twists, There was no like, you know, like
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: this awful, Like it didn't look like it was a
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: bad injury initially, but obviously just seemed shaken up and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: was limping off the field. As he got to camp,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: they were kind of vague about it. Oh mri coming up,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: give us the latest, give us an update, maybe a
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: TikTok of how it all went down at camp.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Well, says, Azuki knows he shouldn't be sliding head first.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: He sort of made a joke about that on Tuesday,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: but rewinding, the Cubs have are continuing to evaluate SaaS Azuki.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: There has not been sort of like there's been more clarity,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: but not any sort of definitive statement regarding opening day.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: He has a sprained PCL in his right knee. They
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: got to that diagnose after that what looked kind of bad,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: just just the imagery of him walking gingerly off the field.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Sunday was a long travel day from Florida back to Arizona.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: I believe there were some delays involved, so he didn't
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: really get to the cub's facility until Monday. He met
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: with Cubs team doctor. I understanding he has met with
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: the Japanese doctor as well as the Marlins doctor in Florida.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: I believe it's called Loan Depot Park now, and it
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: would say as was wearing kind of a light brace
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: on his right knee and the MRI showed what Craig
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Council described as an injury minor in nature. He framed
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: it as good news at least in relation to some
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: of the worst case scenarios you could have conjured in
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: your mind. But still I came away from those media
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: sessions thinking he's doubtful opening day. If you're optimistic, maybe
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: you could call it upgraded to questionable. But still Cubs
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: are gonna basically take this through the weekend. They can
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: start making decisions around Saturday. Suzuki is not shut down.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: He will continue doing baseball activities and will progress as
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: kind of his pain tolerance.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Allows.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if your Cubs fan back home
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: in Chicago, it's not that oh no injury that sort
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: of scrambles the entire season's plans. But me personally, I
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: wouldn't count on seeing him running out to right fields
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: next Thursday against the Washington Nationals.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's you know, it's not terrible news,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: it's not porn acl it's not anything. It's nothing that's
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: like months. And then you also wonder about rehab process
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: and and like how how well does he come back
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in this season? Right now, it doesn't seem like that.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: And and I think I think I saw an interview
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  Speaker 1: with him where he said it like it feels like
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  Speaker 1: it's getting like the pain is subsiding day by day.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, that type of stuff. You you know, until
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  Speaker 1: you actually see him on the field and like ready
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: to go like that that sounds good. But also these
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: guys sometimes just say these things and it's like they
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: have a setback. The next day they go and they
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: they push it on a day on the field and
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and they're like, ah, that did not feel good whatever,
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  Speaker 1: And they shut it down for a week, so we'll
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: see where he is. But optimistically, if he is still,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: even if he's on the IL, I believe you can
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: backdate it three days from the season correct, that would
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: be the first Yeah. So if let's say they're being
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: conservative with that, they just want to put him on
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the al, let's not risk it, and he's if they
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: wanted to push it, he could be back that week.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So let's say it's a minimum stint, it would be
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: he'd be ready for the first road trip. He'd miss
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the first he'd miss the first two series against the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Nats and the Angels, and then be ready for the
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: road trip. That I think right now maybe not best
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: case scenario. Best case scenario is, you know, he shows
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: up the next couple of days, feels great at camp
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and they're like, no, I elis didn't necessary. I get
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the feeling listening to you, like and just just how
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: these things work, like the history of like dealing with
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: these things. Right now, I'm leaning iye Elston, I'm not there.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking to people. But that's just how these
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: things usually work, and you gotta be careful, Like why
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: push it? There's no ru It's like You're like, if
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: you want to really get in the weeds with it,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: you're facing two weaker teams. Power may not be the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: difference in the six home games at Wrigley, where the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: weather is going to be pretty chilly and likely blowing in.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: We'll go through the players that could like fill in
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but uh, it just it doesn't seem
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: like something worth pushing right now. This isn't the playoffs. Yes,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: every game matters, but when you're in a weakened state anyways,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: that's when you risk getting having something worse happen. You
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: certainly don't want that. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I mean say, it's been a very good major
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: league hitter over the course of his career at the Cubs,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: but he's also been a little bit injury prone. I
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: just things have kind of popped up, and I think
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: that has to be part of the conversation here. The
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Cubs generally speaking, are pretty conservative with a lot of
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: these returned to play timelines, and yeah, looking at this roster,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: there are options that you can just plug in, and
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: none of these scenarios are as you know, appealing, as say,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: going out there and building off what was an excellent
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: season last year. I think looking at those lists of
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: names of upcoming free agents, if he's healthy and has
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: a decent season, he's going to be right up there.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: And you know, he cleared thirty homers one hundred plus
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: RBIs last year, and he still he still had that
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: kind of you know, streakiness to his season like he
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I think you can still kind of look at, you know,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: the back of the baseball card to be like, man,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: what if he really put it all together for an
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: entire season, like he came close last year. He was
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: a force in the playoffs, and I think you hope,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: you know, that sort of momentum continues. I get why
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: he wanted to play for Japan after missing the twenty
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: twenty three event, which is his teammates won, he was
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: sidelined with an oblique injury. I think this kind of
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: underlines a lot of the discourse around Saya of like
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: just supremely talented hitter, you know, when when it's going right,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: just an absolute force. But I still think there's a
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: little a little bit more in there. And you know,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: this is the last year of his contract. You know,
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  Speaker 2: Cubs have put a lot of time in my development.
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  Speaker 2: You know, he is, you know, extremely hard worker physically,
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  Speaker 2: He's got the type of talent that you know, other
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: teammates sort of rave about. And you felt, like Megan
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I wrote it, kind of heading into the WBC because
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: you talk to him, you know, as part of the
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: group before he left, like this WBC felt like a
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: real moment for him to kind of make up for
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the WBC title he was not able to be a
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: part of his looming free agency, just kind of the
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: journey he's been on with the Cubs, you know, of
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: signing with the team that was rebuilding because he wanted
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: to grow along with the organization, and like, look, all
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: that's still on the table, all those possibilities are still
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: in front of him. I just I have a hard
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: time picturing him in that opening day lineup.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I mean I think it would be
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: silly to push him unless he's you know, like I said,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: unless he shows up and he's like feeling great running
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: out there. You know, it could just be And like
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I said, like the way the injury happened, Yes, obviously
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: walking off the field limping is not a good sign,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: but just like it seemed like he banged his knee,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and that to me is like, well, that shouldn't be
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: like some awful injury. That doesn't mean there's not something wrong.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like when that's not the type of
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: thing that makes you think like oof, that's that's a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: brutal injury. As far as who needs to step up
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: if he's out for a week or two, I don't
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: think it's it changes too much. The the you know,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the position player grew group was is all but set. Uh.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: You know, there's kind of a competition for the final
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: bench spots. Uh. Shaw is someone that we could see
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: getting more playing time if if say is out. Shaw's
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: looked good in the spring. I think everybody's been. The
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: coaching staff has been really pleased with his work in
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: that outfield. I know he had one game at first
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: base and that was a little I don't know, it
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't right. Yeah, he made an error, it was it
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: wasn't a perfect situation for him. He's kind of thrown
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: into that. But he's he's playing all over the place
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and and it seems to be handling it pretty well
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and enjoying himself. And he's and he's hitting so uh.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't want to say there's no there's
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: no downgrade without with Say out. If Say is out,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: but you have options with him. Seems like Moys's bias
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Aros is kind of set up to be the d
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: H right now. Michael confordo is a depth piece, and
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: then the battle between Chas McCormick and and Dylan Carlson. Uh,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: you can even throw in Kevin al Contra in there. Uh,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: they have options. It's say Suzuki, you said it like
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: he he's been really good, and then you feel like
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: there's even a little bit more there that he can
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: he can do. So he's a hugely impactful piece of
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: this puzzle. H. But this isn't months long missing. Uh.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I think they have plenty to kind of cover a
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: short stint. That's the point of building a deep roster.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: It's really hard to cover months of a great player
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: being missing, but you should be able to cover a
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: minimal eye ens iel stint that otherwise than than you're
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: questioning the way the roster was built.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: And they're in that window now of discussing and deliberating
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: all these roster permutations. I think says situation makes things
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: less clear. They're gonna have to kind of drag some
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: of this stuff out and see how he presents Shaw council,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: making sounds like Shaw is the next man up in
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: right field. Obviously, Michael Conforto has a ton of experience
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: out there. I at this point, i'd be surprised if
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: he doesn't make the team. That's more of a gut
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: feel thing and just and then talking to some some
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: people you know here in in Arizona. Just like his
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: his resume is just far superior to you know, Carlson
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: and McCormick when you look at it overall, like multiple
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: seasons of really high levels of production. Maybe not as
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: recent as you'd like, but that's why you got him
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: on a minor league deal. Yeah, but I don't know
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: if you pencil him in for like six hundred bats
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: as a designated hitter. But I think getting the first
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: shot as a primary DH as a left handed hitter
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: certainly sounds reasonable. I don't think they want to box
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: themselves in publicly, but that seems to be the way
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: it's trending. It's going to be hard for Moises to
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: like bring value if you're only like a rookie DH.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: You know, the Cubs gave Piker Armstrong a ton of
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: runway because he played gold glove defense at a premium position.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: But everyone the way people talk about Moist is just
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: a you know, freakishly good hitter, just a natural born hitter,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: and they want to see what he can do and
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: give him, you know, a little bit of runway here
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: to start the season, and then look at if Sayah
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: is on the iel to start the season could fur too.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I would probably put Dylan Carlson ahead of Chas McCormick
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: at this point, just a little more, a little more upside.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: I think if when you look at kind of the
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: pedigree and the track record, and you know, if McCormick's
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: probably better centerfielder, but you don't want anyone else really
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: playing center field. I don't think uh Al Contra opens
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the season in Chicago. I kind of get a feeling
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: he's ticketed for for Iowa so he can play every day,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: and like we discussed earlier, he would still there's still
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: a way for him to impact the major league club
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: in a big way this year. I just think long
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: term development, getting into a rhythm for really important year
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: for him, it just makes the most sense to go
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: to Iowa. And then one other piece to this is
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: like as the CBS official pointed out there's a lot
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: of players who are not going to make rosters, a
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: lot of players who have opt outs in their contracts,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: and clubs are always monitoring those situations. So I don't
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: know exactly who would be or what they'd be targeting.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's someone who could play multiple infield positions or
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: give you another versatility piece. Maybe I don't know, if
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: there's a bat out there. I don't know, but that
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: there's a whole kind of horde of players that will
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: be out there relatively soon. They'll be, you know, available,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: and maybe they talk themselves into a guy that they
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: noticed in another camp.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's always possible. They do have. I mean,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: they have plenty of talent in camp as far as
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: death pieces, but you never know who hits the open market,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: and maybe they jump on someone. Makes sense. I do
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: think it's interesting. I made the assumption that it was Shaw,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: but if council is leaning that way, it's going to
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: be interesting if he's out there playing right field to
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: open the season, a regular field when the weather is
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: terrible in all likelihood, maybe not terrible. Good for March
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: twenty sixth, I should say, I think it's supposed to
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: be okay opening kay, but still that'll be interesting to
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: how kind of just throwing them, you know, you know,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: into the fire right away, if that's what they decide
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to do, if he's really first man up with if
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: says on the il, this is obviously you know, it
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: throws a wrench into things, but it doesn't seem like
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: it's disastrous news, So I think the Cubs will take this.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I believe counsel even referred to it as good news.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: So this isn't a bad I said. Initially felt when
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: when I saw reports that he was going out for
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: an MRI, I was like, I did not expect. I
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: thought they were going to check him out and be like,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: you're all good, it's a bad bruise and you're don't
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you don't need to worry about it. That that seemed
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: like bad news, but avoided the worst. We'll see how
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: long he's out. We will be back with more episodes
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: this week. Patrick a few more, a couple more episodes,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: updates from camp, and get everyone prepared for opening day,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: which is eight days away. Fun time at Wrigley. We
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: hope it's bearable weather, not bear's weather, but bearable weather,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening everyone, This is Northside Territory.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Make sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: on top of all things cubs. Thanks everyone, take care.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: It was on the lame. Anything I read