The Braves introduced that left-hander José Suarez has been designated for project. That was the corresponding transfer to open a 40-man roster spot for righty Scott Blewett, whom they acquired from the Orioles yesterday.
Suarez, 27, was acquired from the Angels simply previous to Opening Day. It was a one-for-one swap with righty Ian Anderson going to the Halos. Since then, Suarez has been working as an extended reliever for Atlanta, tossing 7 1/3 innings over three appearances.
He has solely allowed two earned runs in that point, that means he’s at the moment sitting on a 2.45 earned run common for the 12 months, however might be fortunate to be in that place. He has walked extra opponents than he has struck out to date, with seven free passes to 5 punchouts. He’s been spared additional injury by a .118 batting common on balls in play and 81.4% strand fee.
It appears Atlanta determined to chop bait earlier than regression caught up with the lefty, so he’s been despatched into DFA limbo. That may final so long as every week however the waiver course of takes 48 hours, so any potential commerce talks must happen within the subsequent 5 days.
Any curiosity in Suarez would doubtless be primarily based on his 2021 and 2022 seasons. Over these two campaigns, he logged 207 1/3 innings for the Angels, working each as a starter and reliever. In that point, he had a 3.86 ERA, 21.5% strikeout fee, 7.9% stroll fee and 44.5% floor ball fee.
Issues haven’t been as nice since then. In 2023, he missed loads of time attributable to a shoulder pressure and posted an 8.29 ERA in 33 2/3 innings. He didn’t get again on observe final 12 months, with a 6.02 ERA in 52 1/3 innings.
Suarez is out of choices, so any buying membership must preserve him on the lively roster. If he clears waivers, he would have the fitting to elect free company as a participant with not less than three years of service time. Nevertheless, since he has lower than 5 years, heading to the open market would imply forfeiting his remaining wage. Previous to being traded to Atlanta, he and the Angels agreed to a $1.1MM wage for this 12 months. If no membership grabs him off the wire, he’ll doubtless settle for an outright project and supply Atlanta with some non-roster depth.
Picture courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Photographs
