Albert Suárez Elects Free Agency

The Orioles announced that right-hander Albert Suárez has cleared waivers and elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. He is eligible to sign with any club.

The most likely next step will be Suárez re-signing with the Orioles in the near future, as he and the club have been doing this dance all year. He is out of options and has been repeatedly added to the roster and then bumped off whenever the club wants to get a fresh arm into the bullpen. Four times this season his contract has been selected to the roster. Eventually, he is designated for assignment, clears waivers and then returns to the club, either by accepting an outright assignment or electing free agency and then signing a new contract.

The arrangement appears to work for both sides. For the O’s, they effectively get a 41st man on their 40-man roster. For Suárez, he would presumably prefer a more consistent job, but the fact that he keeps clearing waivers suggests no club is willing to give him that. With the Orioles, he at least gets some occasional access to big league pay and service time.

After a few years pitching in both Japan and Korea, Suárez came back to North America for the 2024 season. He ended up making 32 appearances for Baltimore that year, 24 of those being starts. He posted a 3.70 earned run average over 133 2/3 innings. He wasn’t able to build on that last year, as injuries limited him to just five appearances. He has been healthier this year but his major league workload has been impacted by his aforementioned moves on and off the roster. He has a 4.12 ERA in 59 innings over 27 appearances this year.