CINCINNATI – After a few days to soak in the Eugenio Suarez signing. There are even more reasons to be excited about the signing going into this season.
Suarez has put up excellent numbers offensively since 2023. He leads all third basemen in home runs (101) and RBIs (315). He’s eighth in WAR at 9.1 and sixth in slugging at .462. This kind of offensive production is exactly what the Reds need right now. He is also not terrible defensively; metrics have him at around league average. Luckily for the Reds, Ke’Bryan Hayes will get the bulk of playing time at third, the reigning Gold Glove Award winner at the position.
That hammers in my point about why I am most excited about this signing. For the first time in his career, the 34-year-old can focus primarily on just hitting. With Hayes as your primary third baseman and with Spencer Steer and Sal Stewart taking up most of the time at first, Suarez can be the primary designated hitter.
In 2025, he slugged .576 in Arizona with 36 home runs and an .897 OPS. He didn’t have the same production once he was moved at the trade deadline. With Seattle, he slugged just .428 with a .682 OPS with 13 home runs and a batting average below .200. There are factors to why I believe that happened. He was hit in the hand during the All-Star game and again just days before being traded from Arizona. He hit three home runs in the playoffs with Seattle, including a clutch grand slam.
The Reds did everything to get this signing done. While we shouldn’t cut the ownership slack on spending habits over the last 20 years, the Castellinis opening up the checkbook this season is commendable, and they do deserve credit. Nick Krall spoke to how he approached ownership when he made it clear he wanted to bring Suarez back.
“We went to ownership last week.” Krall said. “I talked to Bob and Phil. You know, we said this is probably where it’s going to go and what we’re going to need that would be above and beyond our budget. And they approved it. And, you know…we’re excited to be able to do that and go get it.”
Signing the player of Suarez’s caliber is an exciting move. They had the opportunity to acquire him at the trade deadline in 2025. Doing that requires you to give up assets in the form of prospects for a non-guarantee of him returning, which is risky, especially with how his production dipped towards the end of the season. Nick Krall spoke on what it means to have Suarez on the team going into this season.
“To bring a guy in that is a middle-of-the-order bat, that hit 49 homers last year. He’s a great clubhouse guy, great guy with all of your fans,” Krall said. “You know what you’re getting with him. He’s just a tremendous individual, and it’s really been something that we weren’t sure we were gonna be able to do, but it was great that we were able to get Geno.”
Reds fans should be fired up about this move. For the first time since 2021, they may have a player hit more than 30 home runs in a season. Suarez finished third on the team that year with 31.
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