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It certainly could have had something to do with the nature of this particular free agent class, one that featured a number of high-caliber sluggers. Kyle Schwarber and Kyle Tucker, for instance, were out there on the open market, as were each of Pete Alonso, Josh Naylor, Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, and Cody Bellinger for every team looking to add thump to their lineup. Su\u00e1rez, it seems, got overlooked just enough by other teams for the Reds to be able to pounce for cheap, and there\u2019s every chance that Geno gets to hit free agency next year \u2013 when there\u2019s expected to be a much lighter supply of sluggers \u2013 with a bit more leverage.<\/p>\n
But, what if the Reds have already positioned themselves to have a little leverage here, too?<\/p>\n
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Su\u00e1rez, who\u2019ll turn 35 years old in July, has somehow managed to make it to this point in a career that\u2019s seen him hit 325 homers and accrue 33.1 fWAR without ever having been issued a Qualifying Offer. That\u2019s largely due to the long-term contract extension he signed with the Reds the first time he was in town, one that kept him signed despite trades from Cincinnati to Seattle, Seattle to Arizona, and from Arizona back to Seattle along the way. Somehow, this past winter \u2013 at age 34 \u2013 Geno was a free agent for the first time, but since he\u2019d been traded mid-season the Mariners were not able to issue him a QO at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
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If he stays with Cincinnati for the duration of the 2026 season, though, the Reds could issue him a QO at season\u2019s end, much the same way they did with Nick Martinez one winter ago. And given that Geno only found a one-year, $15 million market for his age-34 season after swatting 49 homers and posting 3.8 fWAR, it\u2019s hard to see there being a significantly bigger market for him entering an age-35 season even if he completely replicates the production in 2026 that he did last year.<\/p>\n
(By default, that fWAR mark it going to be much more difficult to get to since he\u2019ll be asked to DH much, much more than he ever has, and therefore won\u2019t get granted any value at all from his glove.)<\/p>\n
Granted, next winter could see a free agent slugger class devoid of the franchise-altering names that were available this winter. For all their talents, Randy Arozarena, Seiya Suzuki, and George Springer entering his age-37 season don\u2019t quite move the needle the way the previously mentioned group did. So, if Su\u00e1rez does manage to go nuclear while playing another season in Great American Ball Park, there\u2019s always the chance he finds richer pastures than what he\u2019d get by simply accepting a QO from the Reds \u2013 something that\u2019ll be akin to $23 million for the 2027 season. But even then, the Reds would get a draft pick out of the deal if Geno turned down the QO and found a better deal elsewhere.<\/p>\n
So, there\u2019s a chance Su\u00e1rez could already be on a two-year, ~$38 million deal with the Reds, effectively, though there\u2019s still a number of scenarios that let the Reds off that hook if they so desire.<\/p>\n
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Obviously, a poor year by Geno could allow the Reds to eschew even issuing him the QO at season\u2019s end and allow him to simply reach free agency with no strings attached. That would effectively make it as if the Reds had a team option for him for 2026 that the declined with no buyout.<\/p>\n
Things could very well go sideways for the Reds during the 2026 season, too, at which point they could trade Geno to someone else in July and escape even having to make these decisions. They could even decide to do that if things in town are going well, Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes and Sal Stewart and Spencer Steer all hit well, and the fit simply doesn\u2019t seem as obvious as it did this winter.<\/p>\n
However, if the guy they turned to for his ability to sock baseballs over the fence continues to excel at that again in 2026 and they determine they want his gum-bubble ability back for a second year, well, that decision may well have already been made for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slugger Eugenio Su\u00e1rez is fresh off a season that saw him thwack 49 home runs and be valued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2400],"tags":[72,146,5,88,535,50,4259,1365,53,92,75,350,311,94,81,29,620,4,761,74,47736,1456,536,6513,619,105,6288],"class_list":{"0":"post-632031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-alex-bregman","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-bo-bichette","12":"tag-cincinnati","13":"tag-cincinnati-reds","14":"tag-cincinnatireds","15":"tag-cody-bellinger","16":"tag-detroit-tigers","17":"tag-eugenio-suarez","18":"tag-free-agency","19":"tag-free-agent","20":"tag-george-springer","21":"tag-josh-naylor","22":"tag-kyle-schwarber","23":"tag-kyle-tucker","24":"tag-mariners","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-nick-martinez","27":"tag-pete-alonso","28":"tag-qo","29":"tag-randy-arozarena","30":"tag-reds","31":"tag-sal-stewart","32":"tag-seattle","33":"tag-seiya-suzuki","34":"tag-spencer-steer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116256868336590806","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}