The Cardinals announced Friday that they’ve signed lefty Andrew Suarez to a minor league contract and invited him to Spring Training. He’ll provide some left-handed depth and a potential bullpen option after spending the past two seasons pitching in the Korea Baseball Organization (2021) and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (2022).
A second-round pick by the Giants back in 2015, Suarez pitched parts of three big league seasons in San Francisco, impressing with a solid 4.49 ERA in 160 1/3 frames as a rookie in 2018 before regressing to a 5.79 ERA in 32 2/3 innings during his sophomore season. Suarez tossed just 9 2/3 innings during the shortened 2020 campaign, bringing his career ERA to 4.66 in 202 2/3 innings. He’s fanned a below-average 17.8% of his MLB opponents but also posted strong 7.8% walk and 49.8% ground-ball rates as a big leaguer.
Suarez, 30, was excellent with the KBO’s LG Twins back in 2021, pitching 115 1/3 innings of 2.18 ERA ball with a 26.6% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 57.1% grounder rate. That landed him a deal with NPB’s Yakult Swallows for the 2022 season, which he surely hoped to use as a stepping stone for either a raise on a second season in NPB or a return directly to the big leagues. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out that way; Suarez spent more time with Yakult’s minor league club than he did their top team, and he was roughed up for a 6.23 ERA in 21 2/3 frames while pitching with the Swallows’ top-level club.
It’s not clear whether the Cardinals view Suarez as a starter or reliever, though he’d have a better path to their roster if he were to head to the bullpen for the upcoming season. He’s worked primarily as a starting pitcher in his career, but the Cardinals have Jordan Montgomery, Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Jack Flaherty penciled into the rotation now, with several depth options behind them (e.g. Dakota Hudson, Jake Woodford, Matthew Liberatore, top prospect Gordon Graceffo). In the bullpen, however, he could compete with Genesis Cabrera, Zack Thompson, Packy Naughton and JoJo Romero.
FOREVER
GIANT
That’s not going you to fill their SP needs. They should go get Eduardo Rodriguez from the Tigers in some type of package for Gorman. If I keep saying it enough maybe the Cards and Tigers will get annoyed and just do it to shut me up 😉
There seems to be a plethora of “Suarez” who are pitchers. I need an Excel spreadsheet to keep them all straight.
any Suarez is a good pickup
I was thinking so too you ignorant son of a
This sets up the dudbirds for world series glory. Way to go Mo!
Strange that he was good in the KBO but bad in the NPB.
Cards have had surprisingly good luck signing Pacific Rim players in recent years, including Mikolas, Kim and Oh (let’s not mention Drew Verhagen). I imagine their scouts over there liked what they saw from Suarez in the KBO and figured he’s worth a flier. No harm, no foul.
i hate so much that Jack Flaherty was listed last in the Cards SP list. he’s having a rough set of seasons over there. bad juju. trade or release him. let him come home!
Flaherty is a free agent after this season. I don’t see him coming back no matter what happens this year. I wish him luck this year and the next.
Minor Roster filler that is where he is at — cheap to find out if there is something they can tinker with and show promise otherwise fills some innings low risk
He’ll love it in Memphis. The BBQ is great.
I’ve always been a big Suarez fan. I’m glad he got to establish himself in Asia and I hope he does well as a Cardinal.
No risk shot. Suarez was solid as a rookie with SF and lights out in the KBO. If he finds any of that while he’s in Memphis, it’d be a huge win for the Cards even if he’s just a lefty out the pen
Another huge move by the Cardinals front office to inch them closer to the Mets, Giants, Phillies, Dodgers and Braves. Way to go Mo!!!!! One more small minor move and you might just get payroll back to last years level!!!!
An ace really would do wonders for the longevity of elite contention in the playoffs. An ace would play multiple games in a best of 3 or 4 series. Not many available though without overspending in this market. With Ballys about to go through bankruptcy and much money on the Cardinals behalf in question, I don’t see them being aggressive at all until the trade deadline if a T.V. Market has been secured.