3:23PM: Suwinski’s claim has been officially announced by the Dodgers, and Enrique Hernandez was placed on the 60-day injured list in the corresponding roster move. Hernandez underwent surgery in November to repair a torn muscle in his non-throwing arm, and it was already known that the utilityman would be missing at least the first couple of months of the 2026 season.
1:24PM: The Dodgers are claiming outfielder Jack Suwinski off waivers, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Pirates designated Suwinski for assignment earlier this week to open up a 40-man roster spot for Marcell Ozuna.
The 27-year-old Suwinski has struggled mightily over the past two years, following a breakout 2023 campaign. The outfielder began last season on the big-league roster, but didn’t make it through April. He ended up tallying 59 games with the Pirates and 56 games at Triple-A. Suwinski mashed in the minors to the tune of a 150 wRC+. He managed just a 55 wRC+ in 178 MLB plate appearances.
With the Pirates adding outfielders Jhostynxon Garcia and Jake Mangum in separate trades this offseason, plus free agent signing Ryan O’Hearn potentially spending time on the grass, Suwinski was a long shot to contribute with the Pirates. The Ozuna addition locked up the DH spot, further limiting the chance for Suwinski to make the club. He’ll head to the Dodgers and look to rebuild his value in a different organization.
As good as Suwinski was in 2023, his swing-and-miss tendencies suggested the production was unsustainable. He hit 26 home runs and chipped in 13 steals in his first full season in the big leagues, but it came with a 32% strikeout rate. That was after a rookie year that saw him swat 19 home runs in 372 plate appearances while striking out at a 30.6% clip. Suwinski has walked at a strong 12.3% rate as a big leaguer, so he’s got the three true outcomes covered. He just hasn’t done enough of the home run part of the equation in recent seasons.
The Dodgers are set in the outfield with Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages, and Kyle Tucker locked into everyday roles. The right-handed Pages has been much better against lefties (.831 OPS) than righties (.722 OPS) in his career, so perhaps there’s a platoon opportunity there, but his glove is tough to take out of the lineup. Suwinski has put up -16 Defensive Runs Saved in his career as a center fielder, so he’s unlikely to be a fit in that role. Pushing Alex Call for the fourth outfielder gig is his best hope to make the roster.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Huge
What’s huge will be the number of strikeouts Jack will make this season along with his annual batting average of close to the Mendoza line
There’s like 3 teams that I never rule out a player breaking out or rebounding with, regardless of how bad they were before. The Dodgers are one of those teams.
Who are the other 2 teams? Rays and Brewers?
Yes ! & Yes !!
Yeah, the Rays definitley, and the Pirates haven’t had very much luck with their players going to Milwaukee.
Is this acquisition to get the other teams to stop complaining about how good the Dodgers are?
Strikeouts won’t be huge. If he doesn’t hit hrs walk and keep them reasonable he won’t play enough for them to be huge.
It was a lot easier to pitch around him in Pittsburgh’s lineup. He was one of the only guys capable of taking you deep. He should get a lot more pitches to hit in LA.
Hard to get pitches to hit when you’re not on the active roster.
You clearly never watched Suwingandamisski. There was no pitching around him, he saw plenty of strikes…. Hit the catchers mitt with his bat on his shoulder.
Yeah that explains why he only hit 3 dingers last year
what a joke
Im sure he’ll be phenomenal now that hes away from Pirates
Nope, he’s horrible
See how he does with real coaching
When the Dodgers redevelop him back into a 25+ HR hitter, just a little more salt in the wound.
The next Max Muncy.
Not much to redevelop. Just a tiny adjustment and confidence all is needed.
That’s simply not true, AI. While confidence is a huge factor, he has a number of mechanical flaws that need remediated. There are intangibles that need work as well, like pitch recognition and strike zone awareness. Like Cruz, he needs an education in count approach and a better awareness of what a pitcher is throwing.
Instilling confidence is important. But again, he’s in need of good hitting instructors.
His strike zone awareness is some of the best in baseball.
Yes. Usually after he’s struck out and is heading back to the bench.
On the contrary, he’s been like a lot of Pirates hitters, especially Cruz and Davis. They often seem befuddled about the location of the strike zone, let alone what the pitcher is throwing to them
With Jack, I get it. Perhaps he’s overthinking more often than not, in trying to get out of this funk he’s been in for a protracted period. There’s your confidence note at work
How do you explain all his walks then?
Many different ways. Poor pitching. Pitching around him
I’d think explaining his numerous strikeouts was more disconcerting.
Poor pitching then why don’t all the pirates have elite walk rates?
Pitching around him so he a good hitter and you just wanted to complain about him so you ignored it.
Maybe you should just stick to complaining about Nutting instead of trying to evaluate players.
What a stupid response. I mean, it goes beyond your normal, everyday blather.
Let me guess. The idea of ‘evaluating’ players is somehow your domain, as you sit there on the couch with a beer, bag of peanuts and a computer.
“Complaining?” I actually lauded Suwinski and bemoaned his failures.
Run along, Dream. Another guy whose postings these days are just drivel and not worth the time. Are you related to JoelFromNy? You sound just like him here—contrarian for the pleasure of message board vandalism.
Maybe you should just stick to trying to convince others here that you have some inside knowledge about things
Enough already
@Washed Hes actually said to have elite pitch recognition. Making contact when swinging at those pitches has been an.issue though.
Washed is in exile hiding like Yoda as he should be after saying something as ridiculous as teams are pitching around a guy with a .147 average.
That’ll be easier than straightening out his mechanics and cutting down his incredible strike out rate. That is, having power isn’t his problem
I hope the kid turns it around. By all accounts, he’s just a good man, great teammate and incredibly hard worker. He just needs someone to get him straightened out.
He could def be a Joc Pederson type right?
He has a way to go until he hits that level but if he does, the Dodgers will have a decent outfield replacement with some pop
Again, I’m rooting for him. Shame no one with the Pirates could right him
the shame belongs to then hitting coach Andy Haines and worthless manager Derek Shelton for changing his swing to try and make him a contact hitter
After they messed with his swing, his power practically disappeared
His chase and walk percentage is near top of the scale better than most players. There’s things to be critical about him so why call him out on something that is a flat out lie? There’s nothing to evaluate. The statistics speak for themselves. Why you are trying to say otherwise I have no idea. Maybe it’s like the other guy about Suwinski is a free agent because he is out of options. The old keep saying it until it has to be true I guess.
Come on. Don’t take your ball and go home. You actually said they were pitching around Jack Suwinski. Your baseballs needed to be busted for that.
2nd career could be lawyer
Haha never thought of that
We usually called him Suwing-and-a-miss-ski
Or the classic Sukwinski
Too bad for him as 90% of his salary is now automatically deferred.
clever
Yea really too bad for him because now he has to pay California taxes. Thats like half his salary.
Name one currant baseball town that is better, weather wise than California ?
It’s too bad he is now a Dodger.
Gooseberry, Oregon?
I’ve heard San Diego is perfect weather
San Diego
Players love playing for the Dodgers. I assume he is happy to join them.
I have just as good a chance of playing for the Dodgers as Suwinski.
Eeeeeeeeasy now Rickey. He is actually in ST in a uniform. His odds may be low but I give him a definite edge over your chances!
Well he is 40 years younger than me. Still a close call
He’s out of options and if he’s not on the major league roster when ST breaks he’ll be a free agent
He won’t be a free agent
I’m sure he can request a trade if it’ll be too much of a hardship for him.
The new project! CT, JT, Muncy 2.0
more likely the next Sheldon Neuse, Taylor Trammell, or Michael Confotrto
Outhouse to penthouse.
Oh, well that’s something. Best of luck! I wonder if they’ll try to sneak him through waivers as well?
Being the team that won the world series is the one who claimed him there won’t be any sneaking needed.
The Dodgers appear to be claiming almost every player who can’t refuse an outright assignment that falls to them on the waiver wire.
Has no options. Will be gone by March 24.
So much easier to clear options with rosters basically set. If anybody else wanted him, why would have he slipped to the 30th possible team?
Errrr, clear WAIVERS
If he produces in the next few weeks he will be claimed when waived. If he doesn’t produce he’ll be cut.
He won’t be “cut”.
He’ll be run through waivers. He probably will clear waivers. And get sent to Triple-A.
He won’t get “cut”.
HE IS OUT OF OPTIONS
what part of that don’t you understand?
He can refuse a minor league assignment
He can’t refuse an assignment. He only has 2.17 years service time. Being out of options just means he needs to go through waivers first.
he can declare free agency if no one claims him but he can’t be sent outright to the minors because he’s out of options
Only if he has 5 years service time. He has 2.17.
Probably doesn’t mind his guarantee salary and having the best coaches working with him as well.
Being out of options doesn’t make you a free agent
I think you’re describing only what happens when a player is outrighted a second time in his career or is outrighted with five or more years of major league service.
If I recall correctly, Suwinski has only been outrighted once and has nowhere near the service time necessary to have the right to refuse an outright assignment.
Correct.
That is incorrect.
“Incorrect” was meant for The Man 3
Never the less, a big thank you to LAD in preventing PIT from bringing him back and CLE from claiming him despite the fact they have 5 other lefty OFs in the system who can’t hit if their life depended on it.
Can’t say Suwinski without “Win” the Dodgers obviously know this that’s why they picked him up. It’s what winning teams do obviously.
To make you and specifically only you cry about it and I for one enjoy this…..even though I’m a Braves fan muhahahahaha.
Exhibit #1 in the Dodger’s defense against “ruining baseball” charges.
Really? Did you miss the part where they put Hernandez on the 60 day? They paid $4.5m (+ the tax) 9 days ago to a guy they knew would play half a season and take 150 crappy at bats. And before you say “but post season hero” his slash line in last years playoffs was .250/.290/.359 and he struck out 38% of the time. That contract is literally setting money on fire.
How dare they!?!
See this is what people don’t get. Post season hero matters, a lot. They are trying to win, always. No one cares what the pay him bc he has been a major piece in the postseason. Dodgers spend money to win. Only teams who don’t are upset about any of this.
I think you’re the one that doesn’t get it. No other team has the luxury of paying 10x what a guy is worth just because they want him around. That is the point. IDK where this idea came from that “anyone can spend like this” but it is total BS.
The dodgers reinvest their revenue into their players. In 2024 they spent 73% of their revenue as player salaries. 21 teams in MLB spent under 50% of their revenue for player salaries. They spend their money on their product (players) in order to win. It has nothing to do with paying 10x more then what you think players are worth, or every team going wild with payroll.
🤣
40-man roster.
Is this a defensive upgrade over Siani? It doesn’t make any sense to me that they keep them both.
He just needs to get into 1 game and he will qualify for a ring.
I am not totally familiar with waiver priority but in wondering if this means the Dodgers were the only team to put in a claim seeing as they are the World Series champions or the order was decided by overall record? Still means he went unclaimed by the lesser teams.
Yes it means all the other teams passed.
Because they can.
I guess all the other teams said Pass!
How cool is it that the Pirates adding an outfielder named Ghost-Nixon Garcia?!?
Destined to start every 10th inning on second base.
Gonna be Ghost Trump Garcia because Trump says so!!
Bigly!
Something about this is terrifying.
Can’t be worse than Conforto
Amen.
If the Dodgers have room on their roster for Jack Suwinski, surely they have room on their roster for Andrew McCutchen. So says Pirates fans, anyway.
My guess is that they are taking a flyer on Jack. If he has anywhere near his potential during spring training; he could stick with the team as Alex Call (who hasn’t played much centerfield) has options and Suwinski has played a bit of centerfield. On the other hand, if Kim and Freeland BOTH have excellent springs, Suwinski could be DFA’d at the end of spring training. Edman and Hernandez will both be on the IL to start the year leaving little backup for centerfield.
My guess is that they are taking a flyer on Jack.
Good guess
Suwinski seems just like the type of buy low player that in the past has rebounded and excelled with the Dodgers.
A+
Good pickup for the Dodgers if Jack stays with them. Spring Training work with the Dodgers, could be all that he needs. Learning from Betts and company, is a huge break for Jack. If this doesn’t work for him, he is just a minor league depth piece
Jack Suwinski is a decent corner outfielder who can play center if needed and steal the occasional base. He’s also a hard worker who was victimized by poor coaching. Hope he turns it around and has a long productive big league career. He’s one of the good guys.
No disrespect to anyone, but I knew a lot of good guys who didn’t have the ability to stick in the majors, or the minors in some cases.
I’m sure Jack is among the good guys by all indications but that also seems to be the case here.
That’s just life in professional baseball. There are no participation trophies there.
I hope Old Buc Fan is right for Suwinski’s, but I respect the “belongs to the Reds” comment below and am afraid his observations may apply in Suwinski’s case.
Good luck, Jack!!
Dodger fans look up him hitting 3hRs on Father’s Day.
I had no idea he fell off so fast but I like the signing. Hopefully he bounces back and becomes the next late great Shawn Green.
If this story was the other way around the title of the article would be “Pirates go dumpster diving, sign Dodgers outcast.”
It’s Stephan… Jaaaaaaack Stephan!
Almost 100 comments on Jack Suwinski. Jack Suwinski. Oh, it’s not REALLY about Suwinski. It’s about the Dodgers.
Pirates articles do well. It would have similar comments no matter who claimed him.
126 comments just on his dfa no other team involved.
mlbtraderumors.com/2026/02/pirates-to-designate-ja…