Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs

Former Hiroshima Toyo Carp outfielder Seiya Suzuki ended months (if not years) of speculation about where he was going to end up by signing a five year deal with the Chicago Cubs this week.  He was assigned uniform number 27 today (for Mike Trout, not Atsuya Furuta) and is expected to make his exhibition debut tomorrow afternoon.

Suzuki was originally drafted as an infielder by the Carp in the second round of the 2012 draft out of Nishogakusha University High School.  He played third base and shortstop on the farm team during his first two seasons but was converted permanently to the outfield in 2015.  He didn't become a regular with the Carp until 2016.  He made a huge splash by hitting sayonara home runs in back-to-back games on June 17th & 18th and then hit a game winning home run on the 19th - all against the Orix Buffaloes whose bullpen pitchers probably still have nightmares about facing him.  He helped lead the Carp to their first Japan Series in 25 years that fall although they lost to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.  He finished the season with a .335 batting average, 29 home runs and 95 RBIs.  The following seasons were more of the same - he hit .300 with 26 home runs and 90 RBIs in 2017, leading the Carp to another Central League pennant although they were beaten by the Baystars in the playoffs.  2018 saw him hit .330 with 30 home runs and 94 RBIs with the Carp again winning the pennant and again falling in the Nippon Series, this time to the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.  He led the Central League in batting in 2019 with a .335 average and hit 28 home runs with 87 home runs although the Carp missed the playoffs for the first time in three years.  His average dropped to .300 in 2020 as the Carp dropped out of contention but he rebounded with a .317 average last year, good enough to win his second batting crown.  He also had a career high 38 home runs last year - it seemed like he hit 30 of them in September as the Carp made a late (and ultimately unsuccessful) playoff run but that's probably an exaggeration.

He's a five time All Star (2016-19, 2021 - there were no All Star games in 2020), a six time Best 9 winner (2016-21) and a five time Golden Glove winner (2016-17, 2019-21).  Besides his two batting crowns he also led the CL in OBP twice (2019 & 2021).  He played for Samurai Japan in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the 2019 Premier 12 and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, winning Gold Medals in the last two tournaments.  He was the MVP of the Premier 12, hitting .444 with 3 home runs and 13 RBIs in just eight games.

His first baseball card is #23 the 2013 BBM Rookie Edition set.  It's becoming more and more apparent each year that that set is loaded - in addition to Suzuki it also includes the rookie cards of Takehiro Norimoto of the Eagles, Yasuhiro Ogawa of the Swallows, Tomoyuki Sugano of the Giants and, of course, Shohei Ohtani.  His other cards from 2013 include cards in BBM's 1st Version (#105), Carp team (#C047), and Rookie Edition Premium (#RP11 & #RP40) sets and the Front Runner Carp Season Summary set (#16).  His first Calbee card was #203 in the 2016 Series Three set.

Suzuki is one of my favorite players and it was difficult to pick just a few of his cards so here's a whole bunch of them (in more or less chronological order):

2013 BBM Rookie Edition #23

2013 BBM 1st Version #105

2013 Front Runner Carp Season Summary #16

2014 BBM 1st Version #232

2014 Front Runner Carp Rookies & Young Stars #14

2015 BBM 2nd Version #534

2016 BBM Carp #C68

2016 BBM Fusion #053

2017 Topps Museum Collection #WBCPR-SS

2017 BBM 2nd Version #498 "Secret" Version

2017 Calbee #113

2018 Konami Baseball Collection #201810-R-C051-00

2018 Calbee #185

2018 Epoch One #514/HC-080

2018 BBM Carp "Three-Peat" #29

2019 BBM 1st Version #CS21

2019 BBM Fusion #29

2020 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-09

2020 BBM 2nd Version #519

2021 BBM 1st Version #287

2021 Topps NPB #80