{"id":344395,"date":"2025-12-12T12:55:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344395\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T12:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:55:16","slug":"what-roles-will-robert-suarez-and-mike-yastrzemski-play-for-the-braves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344395\/","title":{"rendered":"What roles will Robert Suarez and Mike Yastrzemski play for the Braves?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Braves have made a couple of impact signings over the course of the past 24 hours, as they now have both OF Mike Yastrzemski and RP Robert Suarez in their employ for at least the next two seasons \u2014 Yaz signed a two-year deal and Suarez signed a three-year pact as well. Considering that Suarez is coming off of a career year where he produced nearly two fWAR while tossing 69.2 innings and Yaz has been floating around the 2.0 fWAR mark for most of his career, these are two additions that should definitely help make the Braves better going forward.<\/p>\n

The main questions that I have is how these two will fit in the squad going forward. For one player, it\u2019s pretty straightforward. Robert Suarez is coming here to be the primary set-up man for Raisel Iglesias while also being another option to close games should Iglesias be unavailable or if new manager Walt Weiss simply wants to use a different option going forward. We know this because the Braves said as much. After Jeff Passan initially reported the news of the signing, he added on that the Braves intended to use Suarez as a set-up man.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that Suarez was a very effective closer for the Padres, Suarez appears to be excited to help the Braves in any way he can. In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Suarez made it clear that he\u2019s excited to link up with Iglesias and has already talked with both Alex Anthopoulos and Walt Weiss and also players like Iglesias, Jurickson Profar (former Padres player) and Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. (fellow Venezuelan). \u201cKnowing that Iglesias [is] there, I\u2019m willing to whatever needs to be done to contribute in whatever way [\u2026] I\u2019m happy to do whatever the team needs,\u201d said Iglesias when he was asked about that conversation he had with AA and WW.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve really fortified the back end and I\u2019m looking forward to talking more in-depth with Iglesias,\u201d stated Suarez when he was asked about the relationship he has with him. He\u2019s looking forward to cultivating that relationship going forward and while you don\u2019t really expect or need everybody to be buddy-buddy or anything like that, you would like to see these two pulling in the same direction since they figure to be two very important pieces of Atlanta\u2019s bullpen and the ballclub as a whole. Assuming both Iglesias and Suarez can keep up their form, that\u2019ll be an extremely solid pairing to have at the back-end of the \u2018pen and it\u2019ll certainly give the Braves a leg up in \u2018shortening\u2019 games if the Braves are up \u2014 so that once those two get involved, they can lock things down as far as any particular game is concerned.<\/p>\n

\"ATLANTA,<\/a><\/p>\n

ATLANTA, GA – MAY 23: Robert Suarez #75 of the San Diego Padres delivers a pitch during the Friday evening MLB game between the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres on May 23, 2025 at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by David J. Griffin\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the questions and situation surrounding Mike Yastrzemski\u2019s anticipated role with the Braves were a bit more fluid. Ivan talked a lot about it<\/a> early on Thursday morning and it\u2019s definitely worth checking out his thoughts on the situation. Anyways, Atlanta wasn\u2019t in dire need of another outfielder since they\u2019ve currently got three fine ones in Acu\u00f1a, Profar and Michael Harris II but at the same time, Alex Anthopoulos did mention in previous remarks that he\u2019d be open to signing any player who he felt like would be a good fit for the ballclub, regardless of position.<\/p>\n

In that vein, Yaz could potentially be part of the solution to a role that\u2019s currently wide open in Atlanta at the moment: The Designated Hitter role. I\u2019m not saying that Yaz is going to be the full-time DH or anything like that. While Yaz is a perfectly fine and consistent hitter (with a 2025 slash line of .233\/.333\/.403 with a .321 wOBA and 106 wRC+, which is in line with what he\u2019s produced over the past three seasons), he\u2019s probably not coming here to be the primary DH and he knows it. Yaz also spoke with the local media following his signing and he made it clear that he\u2019s happy to be deployed in anyway the manager sees fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you, they tried to explain everything and try to say how they\u2019d like to use me,\u201d explained Yaz when he was asked about his potential role with the Braves. \u201cBeing as politely as I could, I tried to cut them off and tell them \u2018I don\u2019t care. I just want to be part of an organization that wins.\u201d I\u2019d say that this sounds like a guy who\u2019s willing to play anywhere in the outfield and maybe even as a DH at some point as well.<\/p>\n

Yaz didn\u2019t sound super enthused about being a primary DH, which he admitted when he said that he \u201cnever liked [DHing] for the longest time\u201d back when he was with the Royals. \u201cI felt like I was playing half the game. I pride myself on my defense and it just felt weird at first.\u201d Still, Yaz showed that he was willing to adjust in order to contribute in that role and eventually figured out how to play that role effectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned how to stay active, how many swings I needed to take in the cages to stay loose, what I needed to do to keep my mentality,\u201d explained Yaz. \u201cI think one of the big things to is keeping your heart rate steady so if you\u2019re relaxing for too long and just sitting there and all of a sudden you have to go take a big at-bat then you\u2019re having a huge variable in your heart rate. Trying to figure out ways to [\u2026] feel like I\u2019m still playing the whole game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KANSAS<\/a><\/p>\n

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – SEPTEMBER 20: Mike Yastrzemski #18 Kansas City Royals at bat against the Toronto Blue Jays at Kauffman Stadium on September 20, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ginnie Coleman\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

So while it certainly sounds like Yaz isn\u2019t going to be a primary DH or wants that to be his role, it still feels like he\u2019s perfect to be part of that \u201cDH by committee\u201d role where he could spell anybody who needs to take a day off from being out in the field and vice versa. It\u2019s a move that helps make the Braves more versatile in my view \u2014 similar to how the Mauricio Dub\u00f3n signing impacts the infield (hopefully if the Braves can pick up a shortstop as well) with his versatility. The Braves wanted to add depth and versatility and it appears that they\u2019ve accomplished it so far when it comes to the signings that they\u2019ve made so far in the offseason.<\/p>\n

The Braves have bolstered their bullpen with the addition of Robert Suarez in a part of the \u2018pen that makes you excited about how the high-leverage innings are going to look for this squad and they\u2019ve also given themseles a wealth of strong options to put out there on a daily basis with the additions of Mauricio Dub\u00f3n and Mike Yastrzemski. It\u2019ll be very intriguing to see how all three of these players are deployed but it seems like a safe bet that no matter how they\u2019re deployed, they\u2019ll be effective and productive. Let\u2019s see how this works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Braves have made a couple of impact signings over the course of the past 24 hours, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[114425,99],"class_list":["post-344395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-atlanta-braves-player-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}