Dec 11, 2025, 12:54 PM ET

Closer Robert Suarez has signed a three-year, $45 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, the team announced Thursday.

Suarez, who led the National League this season with 40 saves in 45 chances, became a free agent in early November after opting out of $8 million options for 2026 and 2027. He learned about the Braves from Jurickson Profar and Ronald Acuña Jr.

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“As far as I can remember, they’ve always been competitive, apart from last season a team that’s constantly in the postseason,” Suarez said through an interpreter. “At the end of the day I just continued to hear so many good things about this clubhouse, this team, this organization, the way they treat their players, the city of Atlanta itself. And at the end of the day this was the right decision for me, and I couldn’t be happier and my family couldn’t be happier, either.”

Suarez took the reins as the closer for the San Diego Padres over the past two seasons and established himself as one of the game’s best at that role, making two All-Star teams, posting a 2.87 ERA and saving a major league-leading 76 games. Suarez struck out 75 batters in 69â…” innings last season while sporting a career-low 5.9% walk rate.

Despite pitching in his age-34 season, his fastball still averaged 98.6 mph.

A native of Venezuela, Suarez, who turns 35 on March 1, originally played professionally in Mexico and then spent five seasons pitching in Japan. He went on to catch the eyes of Padres officials with two dominant seasons for the Hanshin Tigers in 2020 and 2021, initially signing a one-year, $6 million major league contract to pitch and then parlaying it into a more lucrative deal that paid him a combined $30 million from 2023 to 2025.

Suarez joins incumbent Braves closer Raisel Iglesias in the back end of the team’s bullpen. Iglesias, who had 29 saves in 34 chances last season, re-signed on a one-year, $16 million contract last month.

“I’m willing to do whatever needs to be done,” Suarez said, “to just add my little grain of sand in the effort to help the team win in any which way.”

ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.