Which MLB teams are most likely to be interested in Seiya Suzuki?

On Monday, Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki will be posted for all 30 MLB teams to bid upon. As Call To The Pen’s Kevin Henry noted on Sunday, there will be some urgency for teams to sign him since he will only have one month to sign with teams, depending on if a lockout happens and, if so, how long the lockout happens.

Regardless, there are a fair amount of teams interested in Suzuki.

Many MLB teams could show interest in Seiya Suzuki, mainly because of his bat

Seiya Suzuki is one of the best hitters in Japanese baseball and if he can translate that bat over to MLB, he could be a great player for a team. He has drawn comparisons to Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and he is one of the best players in baseball.

Of teams that look like they will be in contention in 2022, the San Francisco Giants, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Atlanta Braves could definitely use Suzuki.

For the Giants, they had one of the oldest teams in the sport in 2021 and they already had some offense leave their team in Buster Posey. Their weakest offensive outfielder in 2021 was Alex Dickerson, but he was injured for a good chunk of the season. He was also their weakest defensive outfielder. But when he is healthy, he has been a great bat for the Giants so, assuming that the DH comes to the NL, Suzuki could play the outfield and Dickerson could DH.

The Brewers’ offense struggled a lot in 2021, especially toward the beginning of the season. Christian Yelich is far from the former MVP and MVP finalist that he was in 2018 and 2019, Jackie Bradley, Jr.’s offense is the worst offense he has had in the majors, and Lorenzo Cain struggled on offense as well. Avisaíl García became a free agent after the season as well so, especially with a DH, Suzuki could easily slot into the Milwaukee outfield.

For Atlanta, Acuña Jr. won’t be returning until May and most of their outfield help became free agents including Joc Pederson, Jorge Soler, and Eddie Rosario. They were huge reasons for why the Braves weather Acuña Jr.’s injury and, eventually, won the World Series.

The Phillies and Mets are two other teams that will likely be contenders and could show interest in Suzuki. The Dodgers also may as well since Chris Taylor has become a free agent, the history of Japanese players in Los Angeles (Shohei Ohtani, Hideo Nomo, Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda, Shingetoshi Hasegawa, and others). They also are willing to spend a lot of money.

There are some other non-contending teams from 2021 that will show interest, though.

The Texas Rangers are poised to add $100+ million to their payroll this offseason. They desperately need help … well, just about everywhere if they plan on contending in 2022. Our colleagues over at Nolan Writin’ have already shown that the Rangers will likely pursue Suzuki.

The Detroit Tigers have already shown that they will spend money this offseason and, considering that Victor Reyes is at the top of the Tigers depth chart for outfielders, they need help there.

Some other teams like the Colorado Rockies (who have made it clear that they need offensive help and from the outfield), Miami Marlins, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Washington Nationals should be some other teams that will show interest in Suzuki since they all had anemic offenses in 2021 and can use help in the outfield.

With the way things look, the Braves, Rangers, Tigers, and Dodgers are probably the most likely to land Suzuki based on what they will probably spend this offseason but with the lockout likely coming soon, Suzuki could be signing later rather than sooner.