{"id":869858,"date":"2026-08-27T04:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T04:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869858\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T04:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T04:54:23","slug":"reds-place-eugenio-suarez-tj-friedl-on-waivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869858\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds Place Eugenio Su\u00e1rez, TJ Friedl On Waivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reds have placed designated hitter\/third baseman\u00a0Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> and outfielder\u00a0TJ Friedl<\/a> on waivers, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic<\/a>. Neither player has been designated for assignment, and they\u2019re both eligible to continue playing for Cincinnati while the 48-hour waiver process plays out.<\/p>\n

Both players made an appearance in Wednesday\u2019s win over the Giants, with Su\u00e1rez connecting on a grand slam as part of a six-run comeback in the ninth inning. Daniel \u00c1lvarez-Montes of El Extrabase<\/a> reports that both players landed on waivers on Tuesday, meaning their respective situations will be resolved Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The late August waiver market has picked up in recent years, most notably with the 2023 Angels\u2019 moves to get under the luxury tax line. A non-contender waives a player who isn\u2019t going to be a factor for next season. The hope is that a contending club claims him and assumes the remainder of the contract. If the player gets claimed, the uncompetitive team saves some money while the player gets an opportunity in a pennant race.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much downside for the team beyond the possibility that the waiver placement gets reported and leads to some lingering awkwardness if the player goes unclaimed. The placement is irrevocable, so the Reds would lose Su\u00e1rez and\/or Friedl if any other team places a claim, but Cincinnati is hoping for that outcome. A claiming team would need to take their remaining salaries off the books. If the players clear, the Reds can play out the final month of the season as they would have done either way.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if both players go unclaimed. Su\u00e1rez is the bigger name and would have more postseason utility as a respected clubhouse presence with some right-handed power off the bench. He\u2019s playing on a $15MM salary, leaving around $2.5MM through season\u2019s end. Su\u00e1rez has hit 19 home runs but has fanned at an ugly 35% rate and has a below-average .208\/.295\/.410 batting line through 410 plate appearances. He\u2019ll be a free agent at season\u2019s end, as the Reds or any claiming team would surely decline their end of a $16MM mutual option for 2027.<\/p>\n

Friedl entered the season as Cincinnati\u2019s leadoff man and primary center fielder. He\u2019s had some strong years in that role, including a .261\/.364\/.378 showing across 152 games last season. The \u201926 campaign couldn\u2019t have gone much worse, though, as he\u2019s hitting .158\/.242\/.234 with three homers across 253 plate appearances. Friedl is striking out at a career-high 23% clip and spent most of June in Triple-A. He\u2019s batting .106 with one homer in 26 games since being recalled.<\/p>\n

The lefty-hitting Friedl is playing on a $3.8MM arbitration salary, around $633K of which is still due. He\u2019s technically under club control for another two seasons but would be in line for a similar salary next year if he\u2019s tendered a contract. The waiver placement confirms the Reds\u2019 fairly obvious plan to non-tender Friedl if he finishes the season on their roster.<\/p>\n

The waiver order is in inverse order of the standings and is not league specific. The Angels will have the top priority. They\u2019re followed by the Rockies, Athletics, Giants and so forth up to the MLB-leading Brewers. There\u2019s no reason for teams like the Halos, Rox or A\u2019s to claim an impending free agent. They theoretically could claim Friedl if they wanted to tender him a contract, but it\u2019s hard to imagine any team offering him a near-$4MM salary coming off this season.<\/p>\n

Realistically, the 62-71 Tigers are the first team that might consider adding a rental. Minnesota (64-70), Seattle (64-70), Toronto (65-69) and Baltimore (65-68) have the worst records among teams within four games of a playoff spot. There are a lot more sub-.500 clubs still alive in the American League than in the NL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reds have placed designated hitter\/third baseman\u00a0Eugenio Su\u00e1rez and outfielder\u00a0TJ Friedl on waivers, reports Ken Rosenthal of The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,6105,591,85,7630],"class_list":["post-869858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-eugenio-suarez","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-tj-friedl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}