How Nico Hoerner is helping Chicago Cubs teammate Seiya Suzuki deal with his oblique injury: ‘It’s a setback’

MESA, Ariz. — Nico Hoerner understands better than most what it takes to come back from an oblique injury.

Chicago Cubs teammate Seiya Suzuki, though, is learning to work through a moderate left oblique strain for the first time in his career. There are differences between the two players’ respective injuries — Hoerner’s in 2021 required two stints on the injured list, occurred on his right side and affected him when trying to hold up his swing rather than midswing like Suzuki’s.

Hoerner talked with Suzuki about how to deal with an oblique strain and let the right fielder know he’s not letting down anyone in the organization if he’s not back by a certain date.

“Swinging is a violent thing and it’s something that’s hard to do when you’re anything less than 100%,” Hoerner said Thursday. “If your hamstring is a little tight you cannot run as hard to first, but I’m not going to swing as hard at this fastball because that’s tough to do. … Just get himself totally right because he deserves that. He takes great care of himself. This is no lack of preparation or anything like that.”

With the World Baseball Classic out of the picture for Suzuki because of the oblique strain, the next notable game is the Cubs season opener March 30. Team President Jed Hoyer indicated Thursday that, given the timetable to recover from a moderate oblique injury, opening day is in “strong jeopardy” for Suzuki.

“It’s disappointing,” Hoyer said. “He got himself in such great shape over the winter. He was obviously turning heads here. … Obviously it’s a setback, but it’s actually in some ways better it happen now than during the season.

“It was a wake-up call for us, like, hey this is what happens. You write your lineup down in the winter, it’s never the lineup you write during the season. You always have injuries and things to deal with, and this is the first thing for us to deal with.”

Suzuki and the Cubs formulated a plan at the end of the 2022 season to adjust his offseason diet and workout program to help his body better hold up over the course of the 162-game schedule. When Suzuki reported to camp last month, he had added 20 pounds of muscle to his 5-foot-11 frame. Hoyer said it’s probably hard to know whether bulking up contributed to Suzuki’s injury, though he anticipates some adjustments as Suzuki works to get back on the field.

“Certainly weight training generally reduces injuries, not causes injuries,” Hoyer said. “He obviously got really strong, but in the return to play we’ll certainly make sure we work on his mobility. He wants to maintain strength but also maintain mobility and that’s what we’ll work on.”

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Over the last few years Hoerner has worked to find the right combination to keep his body strong and healthy to make it through a full season. Similarly, Hoerner arrived to camp in 2021 weighing more in hopes of it helping him stay strong through the season. Instead, he appeared in only 44 games because of his reoccurring right oblique issue and a hamstring injury. Hoerner revamped his offseason approach after the season, redistributing how he carried his weight. He played 135 games last year, his best all-around season in the majors.

It’s a process that can involve trial-and-error in understanding how the player’s body moves and handles changes.

“I don’t think you ever really have an answer to that,” Hoerner said. “You take the information you have in front of you and you commit to something fully. I think there’s a kind of peace that comes with that. And then sometimes things don’t work out. I don’t think there’s always a one-to-one correlation of, Seiya got stronger so now his oblique’s hurt or anything like that that could have happened at any point in his career.”

Hoerner knows how an oblique injury can linger. He learned from his experience in 2021 and expects Suzuki will gain something from his too.

“I really, really feel for him because I know how excited he was to represent his country and he has big expectations for himself,” Hoerner said. “I think the world of him as a player and I’m really excited to see him play and I want him at his best.”