Ranger

Suárez

The 30-year-old southpaw also issued three walks while striking out four in the ballgame. He served up a leadoff solo homer to Shohei Ohtani to open the first inning. Suárez then walked two batters to open the third — one intentionally to Ohtani — before giving up an RBI double to Teruaki Sato and a three-run blast to Shota Morishita. Overall he got five whiffs on 51 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 25 percent.

Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto will toe the rubber for Japan as the defending WBC champions host Venezuela at loanDepot park in Miami. It’s a challenging assignment for Suárez having to face a loaded Japan lineup that is headlined by generational talent Shohei Ohtani. The winner of Saturday’s contest will face whoever emerges from a highly-anticipated matchup between Puerto Rico and Italy in the semifinals.

Venezuela skipper Omar López made it official that Suárez will take the ball at the front of a rotation that also includes Eduardo Rodriguez and Antonio Senzatela. The 30-year-old southpaw will make his Red Sox debut in the next few weeks after signing a five-year, $130 million contract in the offseason following eight seasons with the Phillies.

Suárez threw 64 percent strikes while registering a 13 percent whiff rate and 20 percent CSW. His velocity also seemed to be up considerably on both his changeup and curveball, so it will be interesting to see if this was a result of one game or is a conscious change the Red Sox are making to the pitch shapes. Regardless, Suárez’s fantasy value hasn’t changed much from where it was back when he was with the Phillies.

Suárez hit a batter and allowed a single in the first inning, but induced a double play to get out of trouble. He struck out the first batter of the second inning before allowing a double and a 374-foot home run to Konnor Griffin on a hanging curveball. He struck out the next batter to end his afternoon. Suárez sat 90.3 mph on his four-seam fastball, and it would be calming for fantasy managers and Red Sox fans if he could get that up over 91 mph heading into the regular season.

The backloaded contract will then pay Suárez $15 million in 2027, $30 million in both 2028 and ’29 and $35 million in 2030. There’s a $35 million mutual option for 2031 that includes a $10 million buyout. The structure saves the Red Sox quite a bit in the short term and also protects Suárez in the event of a lengthy lockout in 2027; he’d be losing far less then than his AAV of $26 million.

The deal was reported last week and is now official. Suárez is a groundball-heavy pitcher with tremendous control, which is a profile that should age well. Obviously, the team will hope to get his fastball velocity trending back up, but Suárez should fit nicely alongside Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray at the top of a rotation with both talent and experience. It remains to be seen what the Red Sox will now do with their rotation, which appears to have far more candidates than it has free spaces.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds that the deal contains a mutual option for 2031. After missing out on Alex Bregman, the Red Sox have pivoted their focus to bolstering their starting rotation by adding one of the best arms still on the market. In 762 career big-league innings, Suárez has a recorded a strong 3.38 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 705/240 K/BB ratio. His fastball velocity has steadily declined since 2023, he doesn’t miss many bats, and he has yet to pitch over 157 innings in any season, so there are plenty of reasons his type of contract may seem like a lot of money. However, Suárez consistently limits hard contact, commands the zone well enough to produce a career 22 percent strikeout rate, and has a career 52 percent groundball rate, which should allow him to avoid the pitfalls of pitching at Fenway Park. He will slot in near the top of the Red Sox rotation along with Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray. This also gives the Red Sox a surplus of starting pitching that they can use to make another trade. The Phillies made Suárez a qualifying offer, so they will receive a compensatory pick, likely in the fourth or fifth round of the 2026 MLB Draft.

With Dylan Cease and Tatsuya Imai no longer on the market, Valdez and Suarez are likely the two biggest starting pitcher names being discussed. Neither one of them may be viewed as a traditional ace, but the Mets need proven, frontline starting pitching, and both of these veterans would fit the bill. For what it’s worth, Olney believes Suarez is the better fit for the Mets given his calm presence on the mound and his experience pitching in a big market in Philadelphia for his entire career.

Feinsand specifically notes those three clubs as the biggest threats to sign the 30-year-old left-hander away from the Phillies. He also mentions the Tigers and Mets as teams that have shown interest. With multiple large market teams in the bidding, it sounds like Suárez should do pretty well for himself here on the open market.