Former Seattle Mariners Star Named One of Offseason's Likeliest Trade Candidates
One year after being traded from the Seattle Mariners, could third baseman Eugenio Suarez be on the move again?
According to MLBTradeRumors, Suarez is a possible candidate to be dealt this offseason. He was ranked at No. 27 on their profile of 35 players likely to be traded.
Here's a portion of their blurb on him:
Suarez might feel like an odd candidate for this list, given his outrageous second half. He was one of baseball’s most prolific offensive performers in the season’s final three months, carrying a Herculean .312/.357/.617 batting line from July 1 through season’s end. Along the way, Suarez ripped 24 homers in just 325 plate appearances. He can still play a solid third base. His option is not at all unreasonable.
However, it’s worth looking at where things stood with Suarez prior to that second-half surge. The slugger had been acquired from the Mariners in what amounted to a salary dump. He had a hot week or two to open the season and then faceplanted over the next two months. His slump reached a low enough point in June that the D-backs would no longer commit to him in an everyday role...
Suarez has a club option for $15 million that they could exercise for the purpose of keeping him or for the purpose of dealing him away.
The 33-year-old finished the year at .256 with 30 homers and 101 RBI, almost exclusively on the strength of his final three months.
The Mariners traded him to Arizona last offseason in that salary-dump move that netted them backup catcher Seby Zavala and a promising relief prospect. The M's had acquired Suarez before the 2022 season and he became an instant-fan favorite for his good attitude and ability to hit home runs.
Suarez had 31 homers and 87 RBI for the M's in 2022 as they broke the drought and advanced to the playoffs. He added 22 homers and 96 RBI for the 2023 team that missed the playoffs by just one game. Trading him was billed by the front office as a way to cut down on strikeouts (he led the American League in strikeouts each of those years), but it was clearly just a way to cut his $11 million salary last offseason, another in a string of frustrating penny-pinching moves.
Suarez is a one-time All-Star who has played 11 years with the Cincinnati Reds, Mariners, Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers.
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