MLB Network is doing its rankings of the various positions, and they dropped right field with a bit of a fun note: two of the top five right fielders in baseball are Chicago Cubs players. And the placements are both pretty surprising.
You had Seiya Suzuki coming in all the way up at number five:
And you had Kyle Tucker coming in at number two, and yes that’s on a list that featured both Aaron Judge and Juan Soto:
The full list from MLB Network:
Now, then. Would I personally rank Kyle Tucker ahead of Juan Soto? I would not. Indeed, even if you’re extremely generous and say that the guy Tucker was for the first half of 2024 (before the injury) is DEFINITELY who he is for 2025, you could still argue that Soto is the better bet to be the more valuable right fielder (and the projections would agree).
But do I think it’s a fun conversation? Or, more accurately, that it’s fun that this even IS a conversation? I sure do. This is what it looks like when you finally have a star player on your team.
As for Seiya Suzuki, we know he probably won’t be playing a ton of right field for the Cubs this year, so you have to deal with that fact on a list like this. It’ll diminish his total value, and it probably would put him behind Corbin Carroll and Ronald Acuรฑa Jr. for me, at least in terms of what I expect to see from these guys in 2025 (even accounting for Carroll’s down 2024 season and Acuรฑa’s second ACL tear). I think you could have a pretty good debate about Suzuki and Kerry Carpenter, though, as both are likely to do a lot of DH’ing, and Carpenter is coming off the bigger offensive year (albeit with injuries). I think you could make an argument for either of them, to be honest, and the projection systems have them pretty much neck and neck.
Anyway, it’s just fun to see. These are the Cubs’ two most important bats, hopefully generating a great deal of offense out of the 2 and 3-hole.