{"id":940127,"date":"2026-10-25T06:59:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940127\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T06:59:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:59:51","slug":"eugenio-suarez-could-be-a-bargain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/940127\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugenio Suarez Could Be A Bargain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slugger Eugenio Suarez<\/a> returned to the Reds this year in what was supposed to be a cool comeback story. He\u2019d spent the majority of his career in Cincinnati and was set to bring a veteran presence to a young lineup. Instead, he struck out every three at-bats and ended up on waivers in August.<\/p>\n

While Suarez and the Reds have a $16MM mutual option for 2027, he\u2019s almost certainly heading to free agency. Suarez would be one of the headliners in a thin third base market, though it\u2019s fair to wonder how much he\u2019ll play the field moving forward. He\u2019s been a negative defender at the hot corner for several seasons. Cincinnati only put him out there for 50 games, and he managed -4 Defensive Runs Saved.<\/p>\n

On the surface, Suarez\u2019s 2026 campaign looks like an aging power hitter in clear decline. He struck out at a career-worst 33.9% clip. He swung and missed more than usual (14.3%, compared to 11.9% in his career). Suarez ranked in the second percentile in xBA and the fourth percentile for whiff rate. But let\u2019s not bury him just yet.<\/p>\n

Suarez went down with an oblique strain near the end of April. The injury sidelined him for exactly a month. He continued to scuffle through the All-Star Break. Oblique strains are the type of injury that can wreck a season, as the problem tends to linger.<\/p>\n

In the final two months of the year, Suarez went on one of his vintage heaters. He put together a 46-game stretch with a dozen homers and a 141 wRC+. He trimmed the strikeout rate below 30% and walked at a hefty 13.2% clip. Suarez got his swinging-strike rate down to 13.1%.<\/p>\n

The final numbers were underwhelming, though Suarez did still pop 26 homers in 498 plate appearances. The right-handed DH options in free agency include George Springer<\/a>, Josh Bell<\/a> (switch-hitter), Miguel Andujar<\/a>, and Marcell Ozuna<\/a>. Outside of Bell, it\u2019s an unstable group. Taking a swing on a healthy Suarez could yield a nice return. He probably won\u2019t cost $15MM this time around.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slugger Eugenio Suarez returned to the Reds this year in what was supposed to be a cool comeback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,6105,591,85],"class_list":["post-940127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-eugenio-suarez","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940127","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=940127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}