It’s common for baseball teams to spend the winter focusing on new acquisitions and then pivot to extensions during spring training. Nothing seems urgent with a couple of Cubs, as outfielders Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki both tell Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times that they have not yet heard from the club on the extension front.
It’s possible that a big pivot is coming up in the club’s position player mix. Kyle Tucker just departed via free agency. After the 2026 season, the Cubs are slated to see Happ, Suzuki and second baseman Nico Hoerner hit the open market. Carson Kelly’s deal has a 2027 mutual option but those provisions are almost never picked up by both sides, so he should be considered an impending free agent as well.
That gives the Cubs a good amount of future spending capacity. Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman are the only players guaranteed more than $6MM next year. RosterResource projects them for just $76.25MM in spending next year. That number will come up with arbitration-eligible and pre-arb players but there’s a big gap between that figure and the $231MM they’re spending on the 2026 squad.
The flipside is that there are holes. The outfield has a lot of long-term uncertainty with Happ and Suzuki slated to depart. Pete Crow-Armstrong should be a fixture in center field since he remains under club control through 2030 but the corners would need to be addressed.
That could happen internally, in theory. Matt Shaw could get some outfield work this year and could be a potential factor. His most logical long-term fit would be second base, with Hoerner’s potential departure, though a Hoerner extension is another thing the Cubs could consider. Owen Caissie once looked like a long-term outfield solution but he was dealt to the Marlins in the Edward Cabrera trade. Kevin Alcántara is still in the mix but has struck out in almost 30% of his Triple-A plate appearances thus far, lowering his stock a bit. Justin Dean is on the roster but profiles more as a speed-and-defense depth outfielder. James Triantos and Pedro Ramírez are on the 40-man and have some minor league outfield experience but have mostly played the infield and neither has cracked the majors yet.
If the Cubs don’t believe in that internal group, there would be sense in pursuing extension talks with Happ or Suzuki. They already got one extension done with Happ. Back in 2023, Happ and the Cubs agreed to a three-year deal worth $61MM. That was a bit of a surprising deal at the time, with Happ just a few months from hitting free agency as a 29-year-old. Instead, he locked in some guaranteed money and is now slated to hit the open market shortly after his 32nd birthday in August.
The switch-hitter has been remarkably consistent at the plate. He has appeared in nine big league seasons now. In the seven campaigns where he played at least 60 games, his wRC+ finished between 105 and 122. He’s generally good for 15 to 25 home runs with solid on-base marks thanks to strong walk rates. The defensive grades have been mixed but he can steal a few bags and FanGraphs has considered him to basically be worth three-to-four wins above replacement in recent years.
Suzuki has been more of a bat-first player. He has a .269/.346/.472 line and 127 wRC+ over his four seasons with the Cubs. Defensive metrics have considered him to be subpar in the field and he saw a lot of time as the designated hitter last year. Tucker’s departure seemingly opens the door for him to be a more regular outfielder, with Moisés Ballesteros perhaps taking up a decent chunk of the DH at-bats.
External solutions could also be considered, as always. Next year’s free agent class doesn’t have a superstar outfielder. Happ and Suzuki should be two of the top options, alongside guys like Randy Arozarena, Daulton Varsho, Trent Grisham and others. The Cubs could perhaps wait and issue qualifying offers to Happ and/or Suzuki and try to lure them back that way, a situation which recently played out with left-hander Shota Imanaga. There could also be trade opportunities that develop in the next year or so.
The fact that no talks have taken place doesn’t mean they won’t in the future, so it will be interesting to see if the Cubs pick up the phone in the coming weeks or if they’d prefer to play the waiting game. As mentioned, the club has long-term spending capacity, meaning they could get something done now if they wanted to. The two players are in the same boat age-wise, as they were born within a week of each other in 1994, Happ on August 12th and Suzuki on August 18th.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
