NEWSLETTER
It’s been just about two weeks since Seiya Suzuki was diagnosed with a moderate oblique strain, which not only sat him down from Spring Training games and not only took him out of the World Baseball Classic, it also left open a huge question on when he could actually return to the Cubs.
There’s not a significant update today on that front, but at the two week mark in a possible six-week recovery process, it is an appropriate time for a check in.
Writing at the Tribune, Meghan Montemurro reports that Suzuki is now pain-free, but there is still tightness in the side, and he is not yet to his full range of motion. The Cubs won’t get another scan done until he reaches that point, and then he won’t start baseball activities until and unless he gets a clear scan.
For his part, Cubs manager David Ross had no specifics on Suzuki for the Sun-Times. In his piece, Mark Gonzales suggests that because Ross hasn’t yet looked at a rehab schedule for Suzuki, that could lead to (I would say reasonable) speculation that the six-week recovery timeframe (at least) is still on the table, as opposed to hoping for something faster.
If that’s the case – which, again, was always highly plausible thanks to the nature of oblique strains – then you’d be looking at a season debut for Suzuki no sooner than the end of April. Even that would mean a full recovery in the next four weeks, including baseball activity, and then only a week or so to get in some extended Spring Training game action. I’m not sure if that’ll be enough for him to feel big-league-game-ready or not. If Suzuki needs a rehab assignment from there, early-May would seem a more plausible estimate.
Just as it did two weeks ago: this injury really, really sucks.
