The Diamondbacks are picking up their $15M option on Eugenio Suárez, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The deal would have come with a $2MM buyout, effectively rendering it a $13M decision. Just a few months ago, the Diamondbacks wouldn’t have envisioned making this decision.
Suárez got out to a terrible start to the season, his first in the desert after an offseason trade with the Mariners. He went into the All-Star break with a .216/.
302/.366 slash while striking out in nearly 29% of his plate appearances. Arizona considered bumping him out of the starting lineup in deference to rookie infielder Blaze Alexander.
A monster second half not only salvaged his starting job but locked in that extra $13M. Suárez was one of the game’s hottest hitters after the Break. He mashed at a .
307/.341/.602 clip with 20 homers in his final 65 games.
He cut his strikeout rate by a few percentage points while running a three-month power barrage. By the end of the season, he’d pushed his numbers to a .256/.
319/.469 line with 30 homers across 640 plate appearances. After accounting for the difference in his home park, that’s not far off the cumulative .
234/.327/.423 showing he posted over his final two seasons in Seattle.
Suárez essentially played at the level Arizona expected, albeit in extremely streaky fashion. It would’ve been surprising for the Diamondbacks to cut him loose on the heels of that monster finish. He’s a potential offseason trade candidate, though.
Bringing Suá.
