Suwinski stays on the upswing with pair of smashes

CHICAGO -- During Spring Training, Bryan Reynolds didn’t believe enough attention was being dedicated to his outfield partner, Jack Suwinski.

“I don’t think he gets talked about enough,” Reynolds said in February. “The guy hit 20 homers in 300 at-bats last year. I feel like he has to get more talked about.”

Given what Suwinski has done this season, given what Suwinski did on Tuesday night, the people will get to talking. Back in his hometown, Suwinski clubbed his 14th and 15th home runs of the season in the Pirates’ 11-3 loss to the Cubs after a 1-hour, 10-minute rain delay on a cold, wet Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field. It was his fourth multihomer game of the season -- and counting.

“That kid’s got some thump in his bat and showed that,” said Cubs manager David Ross.

Through two months, Suwinski has taken a Bob Beamon-esque leap forward offensively year over year. He has a better batting average than last season (.202 to .253). He has a better on-base percentage (.298 to .367). He has a better slugging percentage (.411 to .557). As things stand, his .924 OPS ranks fourth in the National League, behind only Ronald Acuña Jr. (.959), Corbin Carroll (.989) and Freddie Freeman (.997). He’s already stolen more bases (four to six) and he’s on pace to surpass last year’s home run total (19) by the end of the first half.

“I don’t personally try and keep up with numbers because it can be a slippery slope,” Suwinski said. “I just try and focus on what I can control, just going out there and doing the best I can.”

With those numbers, then, it should come as no surprise that Suwinski’s quality of contact has been up compared to last season, as well. Coming into play, Suwinski has a higher average exit velocity (88.3 mph in 2022, 90.8 mph in ‘23), max exit velocity (112.4 mph in ‘22, 114.4 mph in ‘23) barrel rate (12.2% in ‘22, 17.4% in ‘23) and sweet spot percentage (26.3% in ‘22, 35.8% in ‘23).

“I know just hearing my guy talk about him and watching some of the stuff, obviously the slug stands out,” said Cubs outfielder Mike Tauchman, who trains at the same local facility with Suwinski in the offseason. “He's having a great season, which is awesome. I know he had a nice year last year, too. So for him to be able to build on that as a young player, it's great. And it's great to have another guy from the area have some success."

Suwinski’s ability to crush curveballs, just as he did to lead off the sixth inning against Jameson Taillon, is especially staggering. In 2022, Suwinski enjoyed modest success against curveballs, hitting .194 but slugging .516 against the pitch. Entering Tuesday, by contrast, Suwinski was hitting .600 and slugging 1.400 against curveballs, the latter of which leads the entire league.

"He likes hitting in this ballpark, evidently,” said manager Derek Shelton. “First inning homer got us on the board and then came back. Second at-bat, really good at-bat with the walk and then third at-bat got a breaking ball 0-0 and hit it hard. Really good at-bats by Jack tonight."