Less than four weeks ago, Cubs right-fielder Seiya Suzuki made his Major League Baseball debut. Now, he’s already hauling in Rookie of the Month honors for his performance in April.
“This is the best pitching in the world, and you would expect somebody to struggle just a little bit,” Cubs manager David Ross said earlier this month, after Suzuki’s first player of the week honors, “and inevitably every player does, but so far, the fact that he’s gotten off to such a great start and we’ve faced really good pitching has been impressive.”
Partial-season awards are one thing on their own, but in Suzuki’s case, they represent a hot start as he’d made the transition from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB.