The Chicago Cubs were largely disappointing in the first half of the season. At 47-51, Craig Counsell's squad is dead last in the competitive NL Central and 8.5 games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers. His former team, no less. It has not been the best few months for the Chicago fandom.
There have been signs of growth, though. Chicago put together an excellent first half of July leading up to the All-Star break, powered in part by the improved performance of outfield slugger Seiya Suzuki. He's batting .321 with a .942 OPS since the calendar flipped, infusing the Cubs' wayward lineup with some much-needed power and consistency.
We will see if it holds up, but Suzuki is shockingly at the heart of the Cubs' biggest storyline this week. According to Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, Chicago has dismissed Toy Matsushita, Suzuki's interpreter. The team described it as going in "a different direction." Two Cubs staffers — Nao Masamoto, a Pacific Rim scout, and Edwin Stanberry, Shota Imanaga's interpreter — will step in to help Suzuki.
"The Cubs want to continue to be known as a destination for Japanese players and seen as a place where they can reach their full potential. Masamoto is so trusted that he remained good friends with Yu Darvish even after the Cubs traded the Japanese pitcher to the San Diego Padres after the 2020 season. Stanberry has done an exemplary job of accentuating Imanaga’s personality during interviews and helping him assimilate into the team’s culture."
While there is no immediate indication that Matsushita did anything bad, the MLB fandom has been overstimulated with interpreter-based gossip this season. In the wake of the Ippei Mizuhara-Shohei Ohtani scandal in Los Angeles, it's only natural for fans to react strongly to another report of an interpreter cut loose.
While it's fun to tout baseless speculation, there's no reason to believe the Cubs are embroiled in another scandal here. Sometimes employees are simply fired, or let go, or however you want to frame it. Should more information emerge, we can go from there. For now, however, there's really not much meat on the bones with this report.
The Cubs still have plenty of resources to help Suzuki in the clubhouse. We don't know the 29-year-old's thoughts on the matter — surely he gets a few questions about it at his next post-game availability — but Suzuki looks plenty comfortable with the Cubs organization and that doesn't appear to have changed.
It does, however, merit a mental note. Every personnel move has a motivation, whether it's as simple as cost-cutting or as complicated as a legitimate scandal. The Cubs will deal with any PR fallout in the days to come. This is bound to make the rounds, whether it needs to or not.
For the time being, Chicago will hope to put distractions aside and continue its success on the field. Despite their first-half struggles, the Cubs are still within reach of the Wild Card. Heck, this far out, 8.5 games is not an insurmountable gap. If the Brewers hit a slide, maybe the Cubs come from behind. The NL Central feels rather wide-open if Milwaukee caves.
Suzuki will be a driving force behind any Cubs success. He has been one of the team's best hitters on the whole this season, slashing .270/.334/.479 with 13 home runs and 40 RBI in 282 ABs.
