For the second straight season following their surprise NL pennant, the Diamondbacks spent big to try to get back to the Fall Classic. This year, they haven’t rolled snake-eyes exactly — at time of writing they sit two games below .500 and still have a 7.5 percent chance to make the playoffs according to Baseball Reference.
But with Corbin Burnes out for the foreseeable future recovering from Tommy John surgery and the divisional deck stacked against them, selling at the deadline feels like a wise choice for Arizona. Thankfully for them, they have quite a few talented players on expiring contracts which would bring back a healthy return. Chief among them is slugging third baseman Eugenio Suárez. The veteran could be a great fit in the Bronx as the Yankees look to reinforce their roster for another run at October.
The 33-year old Suárez is a known commodity at this point in his career: a streaky right-handed hitter with prodigious power to go along with eye-watering strikeout rates. This season has already been one of his most prolific slugging years to date and has earned him a spot on the National League All-Star team, his second career selection. While he has five career 30-homer seasons, Suárez is already at 28 long balls ahead of the All-Star break. This includes the first four-homer game in MLB since 2017 which he pulled off at the end of April, and, in June, the 300th of his career.
The price for elite power, as usual, is lots of strikeouts. You buy the ticket, you ride the ride. Suárez regularly runs strikeout rates somewhere in the 25-to-30 percent range, and this season he’s struck out 27.6 percent of the time. I’m sure the fanbase has a certain level of aversion to that level of strikeouts, and like most high-whiff batters, his slumps can be brutal and prolonged. But when he’s locked in, there are few right-handed hitters in the game as fearsome as Geno. The 2024 season was a particularly bipolar campaign even for him, but looking at the month-to-month production that year is instructive in how streaky he can be.
Baseball Reference
Suárez has held down a spot at third base throughout most of his career, but his defensive metrics have always been a bit of a mixed bag. With Seattle in 2023, he graded out as an elite defensive third baseman by Statcast Fielding Run Value (+9) and Outs Above Average (+12), and was a positive in those metrics last season. This season he’s been a negative in both stats, and at 33, it’s likely — though not certain — that his best fielding days are behind him. (For what it’s worth, Defensive Runs Saved has never liked him very much.) In all likelihood the Yankees would be sacrificing a bit of defensive upside at the hot corner for the promise of high-octane power.
We could dive into fancy-pants stats, but I don’t find it all that necessary here. The pitch for adding Suárez to the Yankees’ lineup is very simple: Geno can mash home runs, and competently plays a position where New York lacks a permanent option you feel great about. Jazz Chisholm Jr. has returned to second base after being shifted to the hot corner when he returned from the IL. DJ LeMahieu will not play third base and will be coming off the bench going forward. Thus Oswald Peraza is expected to get most of the starts there for now — while a good fielder, he has not hit a lick in MLB. Suárez would be a clear upgrade.
As alluded to at the top, Suárez would be a rental, as his contract expires at year’s end. This means the price can only go so high — but it will not be trivial, by virtue of the fact that he may well be the top hitter available at the deadline. All-in-all Arizona is not lacking for position player depth — the Diamondbacks even have an heir apparent at third base in Jordan Lawlar who they have been unable to give sustained playing time in the bigs — so they’ll likely be pursuing pitchers in return for Suárez. In particular I suspect they’ll look for arms who are close to major league-ready, since their pitching staff has been among the league’s worst this year.
Suárez is a good fit for the Yankees positionally and has enough thunder in the lumber to justify the asking price. The worry is his streakiness. As all who follow the Yankees are aware, the team as a whole has shown a tendency to shut down and come to life all at once, making the highs feel higher and the lows feel lower. Suárez’s career has taken that exact shape, and it may not be advisable to add yet another ballplayer with consistency issues. But baseball at its heart is a sport of timing. If Geno comes aboard and gets hot in time for the postseason, the payoff could be spectacular. He could also flatline at year’s end. Either outcome would not come as a surprise, though he’s historically been a better hitter in the second half.
Lastly, this would be the most painful part of acquiring Suárez for me personally; apologies in advance for stepping on my soapbox here. If the Yankees trade for him he could keep his beard, but his outstanding hair, which has been comfortably beyond shoulder-length these past few seasons, would need a major trim. Beyond the worries of a Samson-esque curse attending such an action, he’s always looked good with the flow — and the Yankees policing hair length feels more wrong since the beard rule was relaxed. That admittedly minor issue aside, if he brings his power stroke and famed “Good Vibes Only” attitude to the Bronx, he would be quite the reinforcement for this Yankees group.