{"id":387409,"date":"2026-01-04T13:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387409\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:44:07","slug":"reds-cannot-let-pirates-steal-beloved-free-agent-after-pittsburgh-misplays-the-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387409\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds cannot let Pirates steal beloved free agent after Pittsburgh misplays the market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5i\">The Pittsburgh Pirates have been heavily involved in a number of free agent pursuits this offseason, but more times than not, have come up short. Most recently, the Buccos missed out on Japanese third baseman Kazauma Okamoto. <a href=\"https:\/\/rumbunter.com\/pirates-free-agency-dream-officially-dies-after-brutal-kazuma-okamoto-decision\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The slugger spurned the Pirates&#8217; attempts<\/a>, and instead signed a four-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5l\">But the Pirates are not expected to go quietly into the night. Pittsburgh is in the market for a power-hitter, and <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25343849-predicting-every-mlb-teams-2026-opening-day-lineup-version-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">some experts now expect the Pirates to make an aggressive push<\/a> to sign former Cincinnati Reds All-Star Eugenio Su\u00e1rez. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1729122366478049474?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Reds cannot let that happen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, Bo Bichette, and Alex Bregman represent the top-end of the market and are all seeking massive contracts. Neither the Pirates, nor the Reds, have been linked to any of those players. One rung down from that quartet, however is Su\u00e1rez. Because of his age (34) and declining defensive numbers, Su\u00e1rez is expected to sign a shorter-term deal \u2014 likely a two or three-year contract.<\/p>\n<p>The Reds cannot allow the Pirates to steal Eugenio Suarez<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">If the Pirates are looking at Su\u00e1rez to bolster their anemic offense, the Reds should be as well. Geno put together another All-Star campaign in 2025, hitting .248\/.320\/.576 with 36 home runs in 106 games with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Though his numbers tailed off (.189\/.255\/.428) after being traded to the Seattle Mariners, Su\u00e1rez ended the year with 49 home runs and 118 RBI, and put up big-time numbers (.308\/.379\/.577) during the ALCS.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">Reds fans know and love Su\u00e1rez. While his strikeout numbers are difficult to ignore, so is the prodigious power he&#8217;d bring to the middle of the Reds&#8217; lineup. Only five players (Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso, and Matt Olson) have more home runs than Su\u00e1rez since 2019. If the Reds were willing to shell out $125 million in order to sign Schwarber, they should have no issue paying half that amount to lure Geno back to the Queen City.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">Reds fans have seen some of their favorite players suit for the enemy over the years. Former All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1729122366478049474\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sonny Gray signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2023<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogredmachine.com\/beloved-former-reds-catcher-walks-away-baseball-quiet-goodbye-tucker-barnhart\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gold Glove Award-winner Tucker Barnhart<\/a> agreed to a deal with the Chicago Cubs after the 2022 season. The Reds can&#8217;t allow another beloved player to join one of their rivals \u2014 especially the lowly Pirates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates have been heavily involved in a number of free agent pursuits this offseason, but more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-387409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387409","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=387409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}