Ex-Seattle Mariners 3B Geno Suárez signing with Reds

Eugenio Suárez is reuniting with a former team.

But that team isn’t the Seattle Mariners.

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Suárez and the Cincinnati Reds have agreed to a one-year, $15 million contract that includes a mutual option for the 2027 season, according to a report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Sunday afternoon. It reunites Suárez with a franchise he spent seven seasons with from 2015-21.

Suárez, 34, is expected to get most of his at-bats as Cincinnati’s designated hitter, Passan reported.

The Mariners acquired Suárez from the Arizona Diamondbacks at last year’s trade deadline in exchange for a trio of prospects – first baseman Tyler Locklear and right-handed relievers Hunter Cranton and Juan Burgos. The move brought Suárez back to Seattle, where he’d spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Prior to the July 31 trade last summer, Suárez batted .248 with 36 home runs and an .897 OPS over 106 games with Arizona. The slugging third baseman cooled off after arriving in Seattle, hitting just .189 with 13 homers and a .682 OPS in 53 games with the M’s.

However, Suárez delivered one of the biggest swings in Mariners history, blasting a tiebreaking grand slam in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Suárez’s slam lifted the Mariners to a 3-2 series lead that put them on the doorstep of their first-ever World Series berth, but the Blue Jays responded with victories in Games 6 and 7 to end Seattle’s deepest-ever postseason run.

With a Suárez reunion now off the table, third base remains a question mark for the Mariners.

St. Louis Cardinals All-Star utilityman Brendan Donovan – who has some experience at third base – has been linked to Seattle in trade rumors throughout the offseason.

Internally, the Mariners have a pair of young third base options in Ben Williamson and top prospect Colt Emerson. Williamson made his MLB debut last season and provided elite defense at the hot corner, but posted just a .604 OPS in 85 games. Emerson is a top-10 overall prospect according to both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America, but is just 20 years old and has played a mere six games at the Triple-A level.

Suárez, a native of Venezuela, came up through the Detroit Tigers’ farm system. He made his MLB debut with Detroit in 2014, but was traded to Cincinnati that winter. Suárez then blasted 189 homers with the Reds over the next seven seasons, including a career-high 49 in 2019.

In March 2022, the Mariners acquired Suárez from Cincinnati in a multi-player trade. Suárez hit a combined 53 homers over his initial two-year stint with Seattle, but led the American League in strikeouts both seasons.

In November 2023, the Mariners traded Suárez to Arizona in exchange for right-handed reliever Carlos Vargas and backup catcher Seby Zavala. Suárez hit 30 homers with the Diamondbacks in 2024 and then matched his career high with 49 homers between Arizona and Seattle in 2025.

Suárez has 325 homers over his 12-year MLB career.

Ex-Seattle Mariners 3B Geno Suárez signing with Reds

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