Beyond what the Chicago Cubs were doing this offseason, I had particular interest in the landing spot of a certain third baseman, Eugenio Suarez. The reason for this is that I have a perceived fear of facing him as an opponent, as it seems like he always crushed the Cubs. Due to this, I was hopeful that he’d land on the Rex Sox, or another AL team. Or at the very least, avoid a return to the NL Central.
All those hopes were dashed yesterday, when I learned that he was coming back to the Cincinnati Reds, on a 1-year, 15-million dollar deal (there’s a mutual option, but those are never exercised by both parties).
So, I wanted to take a deeper dive into the career of Suarez, to see if my fears are justified.
One stat that sticks out is that Suarez has played more games (132) against the Cubs than he has against any other team, just ahead of the other 4 teams in the NL Central. So it is not too surprising that his home run and RBI numbers are also highest against the Cubs. So let’s ignore the counting stats for now, and compare some of his percentages.
Here are Suarez’s career number overall and just against the Cubs
| Stat | Versus All Teams | Versus the Cubs | Variation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg | .246 | .266 | +.020 (+8.1%) |
| OBP | .328 | .349 | +.021 (+6.4%) |
| SLG | .464 | .540 | +.076 (+16.4%) |
| OPS | .792 | .889 | +.097 (+12.2%) |
| wRC+ | 113 | 129 | +16 (+14.2%) |
| AB/HR | 17.9 | 13.2 | +5.7 (+31.8%) |
| PA/SO | 3.65 | 3.95 | +0.3 (+8.2%) |
So, across the board, Suarez has been better against the Cubs than he has been against the MLB as a whole. There are actually 6 teams he has a high OPS against, but none have as many half of the plate appearances than he he against the Cubs.
It is interesting that Suarez’s damage against the Cubs has been more pronounced at home, and not at Wrigley field. While he does have 16 of his 36 home runs against the Cubs at Wrigley, his overall slash line is only .231/.307/.459. This would make his home field slash line .301/.391/.623.
As we know, the Great American Ballpark is very hitter friendly, so this is not completely unexpected, and may be one of the reasons he decided to take a one year deal to return to Cincinnati. If he’s able to use his home ballpark to his advantage, it might lead to a better free agent deal next season – possibly also depending on what the new Collective Bargaining Agreement looks like.
There is a bit of recency bias in just how well Suarez has done against the Cubs, as 2025 was a particularly successful season, with a stunning 1.208 OPS. But the season before, he managed only a miniscule .421 OPS against the Cubs. He overall success against Chicago has primarily been driven by four years: 2015, and a stretch of 3 straight seasons from 2017-2019. So, perhaps he is due for another subpar season against the Cubs.
For this Cubs fan, the hope is that a 34-year-old Suarez will have his stats regress to the mean against the Cubs this season, and he won’t torture us like he did in 2025. The Reds are currently a dark horse in the NL Central behind the Cubs and Brewers, but if Suarez owns the Cubs like he has in past seasons, and swings a few head-to-head matchups over to the Reds, if could make things uncomfortable.
Cubs in 7 
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