The Orioles announced they have claimed left-hander José Suarez off waivers from the Braves. It wasn’t previously reported that Atlanta had bumped Suarez from their roster but they apparently tried to quietly sneak him through waivers. The Orioles have swooped in to claim him and have designated outfielder Marco Luciano for assignment as the corresponding move. Atlanta’s 40-man count drops to 39.
Suarez avoided arbitration with Atlanta on a $900K deal in November. The 28-year-old southpaw had seemed a non-tender candidate after spending the majority of the season in Triple-A. Acquired from the Angels in a Spring Training swap for former third overall pick Ian Anderson, Suarez made just seven MLB appearances for the Braves. He pitched 19 1/3 innings and surrendered five runs (four earned), albeit with a middling 16:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Injuries hampered Suarez for much of the season, but he pitched well when healthy at Triple-A Gwinnett. He posted a 3.53 ERA over nine appearances, fanning 28% of opponents against a 5% walk rate. Suarez is out of options, however, meaning the O’s cannot send him to Triple-A without exposing him to waivers.
There’s a decent chance they’ll do that eventually. Baltimore is the most active team in MLB in claiming depth players only to look to run them through waivers themselves. Suarez has a little over four years of MLB service time. That means he could refuse a minor league assignment if he clears, but he’d forfeit his salary to do so. If the O’s keep him on the roster into Spring Training, he’d compete for a long relief role.
Luciano has found himself amidst the aforementioned waiver churn. The one-time top prospect has gone from the Giants to Pittsburgh to Baltimore this offseason. He’ll very likely be waived again within the next five days. Luciano once ranked among the sport’s top 15 minor league talents at Baseball America. He was then a teenage shortstop with massive raw power upside in a 6’1″ frame. His bat has stalled against higher level pitching and he has moved to left field after struggling with errors on the dirt.
San Francisco gave Luciano limited looks in 2023 and ’24. He hit .217/.286/.304 while striking out 45 times in 126 trips to the plate. The Giants kept him in Triple-A for the entire 2025 season. Luciano connected on 23 home runs while walking more than 15% of the time, but he struck out at a near-31% rate. He whiffed on more than 35% of his swings against Triple-A pitching. While Luciano hits the ball hard when he makes contact, the swing-and-miss and limited defensive profile have dropped his stock. He’s also out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on an MLB roster or continue bouncing around via DFA limbo.
Luciano has been moving around as of late.
To be fair the orioles are playing hot potato with there final 40 man spot
It’s not hot potato. It’s “stash the potatoes,” if that’s a game?
Their waiver pickups have been passing thru waivers, and then DFAed to AAA off the MLB 40-man roster. They’re trying to use the busy month of Jan when teams are saving their final roster spots for FAs, and busy focusing on arb negotiations, to sneak depth guys into their AAA team without using a roster slot
Hopefully a team like the Cards or White Sox grab him and give him a year to figure it out. A true rebuilding team with nothing to lose.
Luciano is the current poster boy for “Most prospects don’t pan out, even the highly touted ones.”
Pardon my ignorance on these matters, but just curious – if the Giants were to claim him back from whence he was originally released, would everything reset re options to the minors? Is there a limit as to how many claims can be made on one dude before he becomes a free agent?
No, it would not reset his options. And there is no limit on any claims.
Thx for clarifying.
If he goes unclaimed and gets outrighted to the minors and spends the year there, he would become a free agent at the end of the season.
If he gets called back up, then designated for assignment again and goes unclaimed again, he would have the right to declare free agency immediately, as players can only be outrighted once in their careers.
No. And the Giants are done trying to make Marco a Major Leaguer.
Hopefully some team will give Luciano a chance
The Giants gave him that chance and here we are today and why he is in the position he is in. Unfortunately he may never figure it out and just become another top prospect that never lived up to their advanced billing.
Arguably he’s in the position he’s in because the Giants never gave him the proper chance. A cup of coffee and then several position changes
A 30.6% K% in AAA last year wasn’t a good sign.
Yes they did. Errors and tons of strikeouts. Couldn’t hide him in the infield or outfield because of his glove. Couldn’t hide him in the lineup because of 35% of pitches to him were whiffed on. Tough to stick in MLB with that profile.
Kapler’s Coconut Oil —
That’s a pretty narrow view. He was given chances and he booted or struck out at every one.
He is out of options. That means he had plenty of chances.
Marco donned the superstar jewellery and the top prospect strut way too early. That’s on Marco.
@ Kapler: Arguably. But its a very weak argument. His AAA performance doesn’t make much f a case for him deserving another chance. Teams claiming him are just taking a flyer that maybe, just maybe ty can be the one to fix him and unlock all of that potential. But its only a flyer, and not enough to keep them from waiving him again. For the record, Baltimore’s triple-A coaches had good success last year fixing the strikeout issues of a much lesser player in Jeremiah Jackson.
Luciano is probably headed for the Orioles AAA team, if they have their way. They’re just did the same thing with Jhonkensy Noel last week using the same roster slot.
I’m doubtful they’ll be able to that with Luciano. I think other teams will find him more intriguing than Noel, and more than one will see him as an upgrade over the guy that’s occupying their 40th roster spot.
Braves trying to sneak him off the 40-man.
Maneuvers for another signing?
That or another claim they are trying to make.
Poor Marco. Some outlets had him as a top 10 overall prospect at one point..
He was our power-hitting shortstop of the future. Except he couldn’t do the shortstop part, or the hitting, or even the power really.
Vidal Brujan syndrome
My son pulled a gold 1st Bowman chrome auto card of his when he was a top 10 prospect in baseball. Probably could have sold it for $1000 or more about 3 years ago. Can’t imagine it’s worth the price of the cardboard it’s printed on now.
Here the Orioles go again bet Suarez won’t last long either.
The Os are probably making a bet right now that teams are busy setting their rosters, with few spots left, negotiating trades, arbs, international signings, and/or free agents and might be able to sneak Luciano to their AAA team without using a roster slot. January is one of the busiest months from a FO pov. They just did this with Jhonkensy Noel last week.
I got good news, Suarez. I’m takin you OUT
Mickey Moniak, Vaughn Grissom, Grayson Rodriguez…yeah it tracks.
Wrong Suarez, Orioles. Ranger, not Jose.
I’d pass at $130MM too.
I thought it was reasonable for what Suarez brings to a team.
A rotation of Bradish-Rogers-Baz-Kremer-Eflin/Wells is 5th out of 5 in the AL East. Not enough. Suarez would have made a huge difference.
Hmm.. how long until the pirates claim Luciano again? .. (/s?)
This why you should never take MILB contracts or claims too seriously until they put on your uniform in a semi-official fashion.
Does he at least get some team swag when picked up on waivers? Give the guy something for his troubles…hope he didn’t run and lease a place in Baltimore
Not the orioles news we’re looking for……
Threw away Ian Anderson for this hot garbage. I still think Ian makes a comeback.
Keep the bags packed bro. You’ll be moving again in no time
Maybe Luciano wakes up after spending all of 2025 at AAA in addition to bumping around all over this winter. With the Giants he always seemed like a deer in the headlights. He was always being told he was the heir apparent to Brandon Crawford and maybe didn’t work as hard at fixing his weaknesses. He was expecting to be given the SS job in 2024 and ended up losing out to Nick Ahmed for opening day. That had to have been jarring to Luciano. He’s still young enough to get his head straight and be useful down the road.
Feel for Marco, I’m sure he knows his shortcomings in the field, hopefully he can keep working on them and get playing time in low pressure environment, be it in the minors somewhere, or a league outside of the US, he’s still got the talent, just needs to keep working at it! Would love to see him in the Australian Baseball League next season, (season runs November to Feb)