The Diamondbacks could be in the market to move on from one of their top offseason acquisitions, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote in his Sunday Notes column that the Snakes are “willing to listen to offers” on third baseman Eugenio Suarez. That’s perhaps some charitable terminology, as Nightengale himself goes on to note that the 33-year-old Suarez has struggled to the point that he could soon lose his hold on an everyday role at third base.
Suarez, acquired in a salary-driven trade that sent backup catcher Seby Zavala and relief prospect Carlos Vargas to the cost-cutting Mariners, is earning $12MM this season and has a $15MM club option for the 2025 campaign on his contract. The Diamondbacks do not intend to exercise that option at this time, per Nightengale, which is only natural given Suarez’s bleak .200/.265/.317 slash in his first 257 trips to the plate with Arizona.
While Suarez hasn’t seen his already hefty strikeout rate creep any further north — he fanned in 30.4% of last year’s plate appearances and is at 28.8% in 2024 — there are nevertheless plenty of worrying trends that suggest his decline isn’t necessarily an early-season fluke. He’s chasing pitches off the plate at the highest rate of his career and making contact on said swings at a career-low rate. His average exit velocity (87.5 mph) and hard-hit rate (33.5%) have cratered from last year’s levels (90.3 mph and 43%). Suarez has never seen a larger percentage of his fly-balls be of the infield fly variety, either; after popping out to the infield only 10 times in both 2022 and 2023, he’s already hit eight harmless infield pops this season.
Suarez actually got out to a hot start this season, and even as his production began slipping a bit in the second half of April, his batting line to that point in the season was within arm’s reach of league-average. Since the calendar flipped to May, his bat has taken a nosedive. In his past 131 plate appearances, Suarez is hitting .161/.221/.280 with a 30.5% strikeout rate.
Finding a trade partner for Suarez in light of recent swoon and considerable salary won’t be easy. Generally, veterans in this situation are likelier to be designated for assignment and released. But there’s also typically at least one or two exchanges of bad contracts every deadline season, with last year’s Guardians/Dodgers swap of Noah Syndergaard and Amed Rosario standing as one recent example. With four players signed through at least 2026 and three through 2027, the D-backs might not want to take on a particularly long-term player, but swapping out Suarez for another impending free agent or perhaps someone signed through 2025 at a lesser annual value could make some sense.
Despite his downturn at the plate, Suarez has accounted for nearly every inning at third base for the D-backs this season. Jace Peterson got one start there before being cut loose. Rookie Blaze Alexander has made three appearances there (two starts). All three have come in the past 12 days, however, lending further credence to Nightengale’s assertion that Suarez could soon be pushed out of his regular role.
Alexander, 24, is a natural shortstop who’s hit .283/.345/.409 in his first 139 MLB plate appearances this season. That line is propped up by the disproportionate rate at which the right-handed-hitting Alexander has been platooned. He’s seen nearly half his plate appearances against lefties and tormented them with a .350/.409/.533 batting line. Against right-handed pitchers, Alexander’s .224/.288/.299 slash doesn’t look any better than Suarez’s season-long numbers.
The top alternative in the upper minors would be Deyvison De Los Santos, who’s in the midst of a breakout after failing to make the Guardians’ roster as a Rule 5 Draft pick. In 238 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season, the 20-year-old slugger touts a combined .358/.412/.656 batting line and 17 home runs. He’s also trimmed his strikeout rate from the 26% he logged in Double-A a year ago to a much stronger 21.4%.
All in all, the D-backs rank 29th in the majors in terms of production from their third basemen, by measure of wRC+. Their combined .200/.258/.317 slash is 36% worse than average when weighting for home park and league run-scoring environment, leading only the White Sox (.197/.248/.288, 52 wRC+).
Not sure how we go through an entire “who would take Suarez’ ABs article without mentioning Lawlar. Granted, he has no professional innings at 3B but I expect that’ll change pretty shortly here
I assume it’s because Blaze Alexander has been hitting well but is a dog turd at shortstop. While he could be passable at 3b and Lawlar is pretty good at SS
But Perdomo is back tomorrow, and I think it’s more likely short term that Perdomo stays at SS and Lawlar is tagged for 3B, since Perdomo’s other possible position is taken by Marte
Good point. I guess even without Suarez in the equation they have an issue on their hands, granted a good issue. They can’t really move Ketel back to the outfield, even if they trade McCarthy.
What about perdomo moves the 3rd to accommodate lawlar
@sad defensively a great idea…and I guess compared to Suarez it’s a great idea offensively.
Their infield rotation and DH situation will be interesting going forward.
Marte has been gold glove caliber at 2B this year. And even if they traded McCarthy, they still would have Carroll, Gurriel, Thomas and Grichuk taking up most of the OF at bats with Joc at DH. If Suarez is moved, they’ll have to rotate Perdomo, Blaze, and Newman between 3B and SS until Lawlar shows he’s ready to come back up. He looked completely lost last year when he debuted so they won’t rush him.
Under Corbin Carroll’s $111 million deal, can he be sent to minors without losing him? Not saying that he should be, just wondered if it was an option. It worked for Jake McCarthy. I still think Corbin Carroll will be an all-star again, but sometimes ya gotta shake things up.
Carroll can still be optioned, but he’s starting to show signs of improvement over the last week or so anyways. It may be an option once Thomas is ready to come back if it’s still looking bad for Carroll though
It has been absolutely maddening to watch luvello stubbornly refuse to adjust this year. Suarez has been a blackhole for over a month and nothing is done.
What should Lovullo do? DFA him? He isn’t making those decisions. Suarez is just part of the bigger problem of bad defence and an underwhelming light-hitting offence. Add to that your 1-2-3 pitchers on the IL and Montgomery pitching to a 6+ ERA. Lovullo isn’t responsible for all that.
Your right luvello doesn’t decide who is DFA’d but do you know what he does do?? Make the f***ing line up! What do I want him to do I want him to play the 23 year old that is hitting .283 and brings a spark everytime he’s in the line up. But no he insists on playing the guy hitting .161 since May 1st with a 30% strikeout rate to go on top of his pour defense. I would like a manager that doesn’t take 6 weeks to adjust to a situation. The injuries are out of his control but playing the players that give you the best chance to win and he continues to put Suarez at 3rd base every day. Luvello has managed this year only slightly better than his team has played and even that may be a stretch.
Dark
Using your criteria Corbin Carroll, who has worse stats than Suarez, should have been benched as well.
lol if you don’t know that there is different criteria applied to the young kid that won rookie of the year and was an all star last year then the aging third baseman who has declined the last 2 seasons then I don’t know what to tell you. Nice gotta attempt though try a little harder next time.
Also one of the few things luvello did this year to adjust was moving Carroll down in the line up for a few weeks when he obviously wasn’t right. He pry shouldn’t have been moved back hitting lead off like as fast as he was either, with exception to the last week which he started to look like he’s possibly coming around. So the all star and 111 million dollar player can be moved down in the line up but the guy that can’t hit his girlfriend’s weight or play defense should be a mainstay in the lineup?
Injuries are part of the game and sometimes they can ruin an entire season which could happen here but luvello has refused to budge on several things and isn’t putting his team in the best position to win games plain and simple.
Dark
lol if you can’t listen to yourself and understand your argument for a double standard does not make sense. Many teams actually dump underperforming players with huge contracts to “cut their losses”, and not just aging players. Now, I’m not advocating the Dbacks dump Carroll, all I’m saying is that by your original criteria, both Carroll and Suarez should have been taken out of the lineup.
Bro what are you talking about, there is no double standard when comparing a 23 year old all star struggling and a 30 year old who has declined to the point of being unplayable. They are two completely different situations and are therefore handled differently.
Also even if it was a double standard that would be the equivalent of saying you should handle it the same if Anthony Edward’s is struggling vs Kyle Anderson. lol no, no coach, GM or fan other then obviously the ones on this thread don’t see the difference between Corbin Carroll struggling and Suarez struggling.
Well, the 23 year old struggling all star is on a 100MM+ contract and the 30 year old on a decline is on a 10MM+ contract so there you have your argumentation on why they are both playing.
If the 30 year old were on a 1MM contract he would have been cut already and if the 23 year old were on pre-arbitration he would have been in Reno already.
I love Geno but he is French toast up there. The bat speed is bye bye
The good vibes only isn’t working in the desert where it’s bad vibes only there
“willing to listen to offers”
…a cheese sandwich?
not a grilled cheese sandwich, just a plain cheese sandwich
Disrespect to regular cheese Sammy’s. They are underrated.
Made with the finest government fromage.
Why isn’t Andres Chaparro a 3B candidate for the D’Backs?
If the D’Backs start tail spinning toward the All-Star break, I could see a total dump of players on the 25-man roster. Besides Suarez, don’t really see them giving Walker a new contract before Free Agency, Pederson only on a one-year deal, Barnhardt. Montgomery. Giving Lawler, Alexander and Perdomo playing time at 3rd base. This D’Back owner is impatient on big payrolls, it doesn’t work gut it and start over. He has done it before. Could be a real interesting trade deadline for the D’Back’s if they are falling farther behind between the All-Star break and trade deadline.
Potential Merrill Kelly trade? Lourdes gurriel? Heck Marte?
Kelly and Marte aren’t going anywhere. Even if they decide that they need to take a step back this year, they aren’t going into a full rebuild. The only guys they would consider moving are those on expiring contracts (unless someone massively overpays)
Del Castillo should have been brought up awhile ago, and Tucker shown the door.
Give Blaze the 3B job. He most definitely has the ability to make the throws across the diamond.
The M’s were smart to move him; his numbers were trending in the wrong direction. The bat speed in particular.
Gino seemed to be 1 of Dave Sim’s favorites in Seattle, but doubt he would like to see him back at this point. Not to mention when Gino was traded last winter, his bat hadn’t fallen off a cliff and the return was pretty much zilch. How can Arizona expect to get more than nothing in return without paying everything owed Gino?
who gives a spit about what Dave Sims (the worst announcer in MLBL history) thinks of Geno Suarez?!!? Sims isn’t involved in choosing the players for the Mariners roster!
Dipoto and Coi. took a lot of heat for discarding a popular player in Suarez, but they were absolutely right. His bat speed declined a lot last year and they knew it was in for a more steep decline going forward.
Definitely. Offensive profiles like his have very little margin for error and when guys like that tank they tank hard.
9 NL teams, including Arizona, all within 3 games of each other for the last 2 wildcard spots. Lots time till trade deadline. Should be exciting moves this year.
More buyers might mean less sellers. Also, the definite sellers don’t have great trade chips. Luis Robert stands out above the others.
Looks like Seattle had the RIGHT idea about Suarez and won the trade by default.
Dbacks fans weren’t expecting much from Suarez, just hoping he would be an improvement over Longoria/Rivera/Rojas, with a little bit of power. Unfortunately, Suarez has been much worse than that sad lot, and now his middling contract is an albatross.
I’d be in favor of trading Suarez’ bad contract for any pitcher with a bad, short term contract, in a change of scenery swap.
I’d argue that Corbin Carroll is a much bigger disappointment this year than Suarez. Carroll’s stats are slightly worse than Suarez’s stats. So maybe Dbacks should keep Suarez so fans don’t notice how bad Carroll has been to this point in the season?
I hope this is sarcasm?
Suffer
Was my comment meant as sarcasm? Yes and no. My point was that anyone but Corbin Carroll with his stats would have been sent to the minors in May. But Dbacks fans don’t want to talk about or even think about how much of a drag Carroll has been on the Dbacks’ offense this year. Frankly, hitting at the top of the order he was an automatic out, hitting below the Mendoza Line. I don’t even like to admit that, or write it, but Corbin is mired in a miserable, Sophomore Slump season.
Lol, as if its lost on anyone paying even a bit of attention this season that carroll has been sophomore slumping real bad this year.
Slide Newman to 3rd when Gerry’s back. Give blaze spot starts between SS and 3rd
Worst WS team in last 25 years
Even without the struggling bats, it’s pretty hard to compete with 3 top starting pitchers on the IL (Gallen, Kelly, ERod). They’re also missing their starting SS and CF from last season. All things considered, it’s impressive that they’re still close in the wild card race given the injuries and Carroll’s underperformance thus far.
That isn’t impressive. It’s thanks to the general weakness in the NL that the Diamondbacks are still in.
Wow! You just come up with one fantastic hot-take after another, LiberalSteve ! How do you do it ??
Crazy part is Josh Rojas has been passable since Seattle got him from Arizona
.271/.329/.398 good for a 110 OPS+
Anyways on the market Nick Senzel is hitting somewhat in WAS, Nolan Arenado is having a down year but that defense, Abraham Toro, IKF in Tor. There’s options for 3b outside in house candidates
We love Rojas up here in Seattle! He has a lot of fire and passion. Has innate baseball sense. Been a catalyst for us & has had a lot of key hits.
why is it crazy that Rojas is playing well? He’s been a solid player since he got to Seattle last summer.
cause arizona dumped rojas last year and now has 3B issues still.
I believe Lawler is still making his way back from an early season injury and will need several weeks of playing time before he is considered for a promotion to the big club. With Perdomo due back this week, I’m guessing he slots back in at SS with Neuman his primary backup. Alexander and Neuman will share 3B and Suarez will be the odd man out.
Maybe the Rockies can send McMahon to AZ for Suarez under the condition they take Kris Bryant as well.
you must really hate the dbags
Get in line, everybody wants McMahon, especially the Yankees. But he would fit well on many teams. Unlikely Dick Monfort will let him go though. Rockies hang on to their players forever, and don’t function like a normal MLB front office.
Trade candidate? Suarez is a DFA candidate. Arizona would have to swap him for another bad contract for any buyers to start listening for offers…
Or they’d have to attach a top prospect/developing young player like Seattle did with Kelenic so they could dump two dead contracts. If I’m AZ, I won’t do that. They got lucky last year as a 3rd WC team, barely, and playoff baseball is just so randomized at this point with 6 teams in each league getting in now. While they tried to keep it going, it’s just not their year this time. Too many injuries and not enough players stepping in to make up for the lost productivity.
Suarez for Rendon !!!!
Dipoto knew what he was doing with that trade, even though Zavala and Vargas have done jack and squat, respectively.
What am I going to do now with my Geno Suarez Talking Bottle Opener that squawks “Good Vibes Only” when you utilize it ??? I was hoping to trade it to a D-backs fan for a Ketel Marte signed jersey or something.
Suarez news is big time news for De Los Santos. He might even make it to the team before Lawler w the injury now, but he’s not going back down once he’s up.
Astros should do this on Jose Abreu lol
Who’s going to trade for a guy producing wRC+ of 66 or 34% below league average along with a 29% whiff rate and doesn’t walk? I guess the only value he’s providing is defense but that’s a massive drop in production to take for a defense first guy in 2024.
@oldyork most likely going to be dfa’d, the only way he gets moved is with a prospect attached.
Rex and Old
I totally disagree that the “only” way to move Suarez is to attach a prospect.
First, this Dbacks mgmnt group won’t do what previous Dback front offices have done. Secondly, I think you over estimate Suarez’ contract. He isn’t making $25M to $30M per year for multiple years (which would bean ultimate albatross contract). Suarez is making $11M this year with a $2M buy out on next year’s $15M contract. Hardly deal killing numbers for big market teams. Third, there are a number of ways to move a “bad” contract, attaching a prospect is only one of those ways. This Dbacks FO has shown a remarkable, common sense ability to be creative and find surprising trade partners.
I think Suarez will get moved to another team to make room for the returns of Perdomo and Lawler, as well as possible promotions for prospects.
@scottaz dbacks want to move him because he can be replaced, probably also want to clear his salary so they can make some moves at the deadline. Not sure if they are at the 1st tier tax or at the owners cap. He’s not going to bring anything back. That’s why I said prospect attached not saying top 5. When Sano comes back angels can trade him for someone that needs a 1st/3rd He’s on the vet minimum and was better than saurez. You got to realize 11 million isn’t much, but most of the competing teams can absorb that. So his market dwindles very quick. Angels might make the most sense they can trade cimber or someone they think has no value and absorb the contract for a prospect, and have a bat for when they sell everything off
Rex
The Dbacks aren’t anywhere close to any of the Tier taxes?
*can’t
Only IF the right deal comes along…
I believe the Dbacks are shopping Suarez, in advance of Perdomo’s return, on the off chance someone will make a deal. If not, he will be released. The Dbacks will ease Perdomo back in at SS with Neuman getting starts when Perdomo rests. Alexander and Neuman will split 3B in some sort of arrangement given both are RH hitters. Lawler will remain out of the picture until he has had ample ABs at Reno which have yet to occur due to injury.
@angels the only way he gets traded is a dump off with a prospect attached. Most likely riding the bench until they need to get him off the books to make moves at the deadline.
One of the other biggest problems for this D’Back team, is that besides the Suarez miss at 3rd base is that as a whole this team is not a good situation hitting team. How many times does a batter will walk on 4 straight pitches and Gurriel will swing at the first pitch and pop up, or Moreno thinking that he is a home run hitter first, not even thinking about moving the runners along, to many times this team this year swings at the first pitch no matter where it is thrown. I agree Carroll should have been optioned the start of June and work on his offensive game. This team made a trade for Suarez, ok it did not work out cut their lost, he won’t be happy sitting the bench, so either trade him for another bad expiring contract or DFA him. Play it like last season, put Perdomo, Alexander, Newman or bring some one from the minors to play 3rd, but you’re not going to win with a third base man hitting 190 and striking out at almost 25% of the time.
This could be a prefect bad contract swap with the Mets. The Mets take this guy; and pay the contract way down for Sterling Marte. Both teams get rid of their players and both players get a change of scenery.
Benjamin
Only problem with that scenario is that the Dbacks already have a glut of OF. They need pitchers, pitchers and more pitchers only!
One example of a bad contract trade might be Suarez to the Cubs forHendricks. Hendricks has a $16M contract and an ERA of 9.24. Dbacks and Cubs might both take a chance on change of scenery, rebound years. Cubs want to replace Morel at 3b.
There should be no comma before “either,” Adams.
Looks like Pavin Smith was the odd man out with Perdomos return. Imo, this gives Hazen 7-10 days to find a trade partner for Suarez before Thomas is added to the 26-man roster. I believe Suarez needs to get hot quick or he will be traded or released upon Thomas’ return. I don’t think the Dbacks need Perdomo, Neuman, Alexander and Suarez to cover SS and 3B.