There are few people within Major League Baseball as genuinely interesting and awesome as Brent Suter of the Cincinnati Reds.
He has an Ivy League education (Harvard, Class of 2012), co-founded an organization to improve the environment (Sidelining Carbon), published a book (The Binky Bandit) and received praise from arguably the funniest person on the planet (Jim Carrey).
A native of Cincinnati’s fabled Archbishop Moeller High School, which was also attended by Hall of Famer’s Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin, Suter returned home to play for his childhood team in 2024. His success as a reliever in his 10th season in the Majors has not waned even in his age-35 season.
Originally a 31st round pick by the Milwaukee Brewers, Suter wasn’t given his first shot in the big leagues until the eve of his 27th birthday. He vacillated between the rotation and bullpen for a few years, all the while bouncing around between Milwaukee and their Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs, CO.
Since 2021, he’s been one of the most durable relievers in the sport.
Only seven pitchers have appeared in at least 200 games with 300 innings pitched since then. Not only is Suter the only left-hander on the list, but the three hurlers who have been better than his 3.26 ERA over the last five seasons are all quite notable: Clay Holmes (3.04), Tyler Rogers (2.81 ERA), and Emmanuel Clase (1.82 ERA).
He’s also a part of a shrinking group of pitchers who remember what it was like to hit ninth in the batting lineup. Furthermore, his solo home run against two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber puts him in an even more elite class.
Under new manager Terry Francona, the Reds are a respectable 28-29. Just 4.5 games back of the third and final National League Wild Card with four months remaining, it’s easy to see the future Hall of Fame skipper navigating the club back to the postseason for the first time in a 162-game season since 2013.
For that to happen, it will require more than just the ever-steady Suter (2.54 ERA in 28.1 innings) to help the bullpen to get back on track. Sunday’s loss at Wrigley Field saw the relief corps blow an 8-3 and lose an important divisional series against the Chicago Cubs. For the season, Cincinnati’s pen is 20th in Major League Baseball with a 4.05 ERA.
Closer Emilio Pagán, signed to a $16 million deal for two years this offseason, has delivered with 13-for-15 in save opportunities. Alexis Díaz, the Reds’ closer the last three seasons, struggled so much this spring that he was optioned to Triple-A Louisville before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.
Welcome to The Chatter’s Box, a new Just Baseball series from Patrick Lyons. Because post-game media availability is focused entirely on the details of the previous nine innings, the conversations that take place in the clubhouse or during batting practice before a contest can take on a much more relaxed and jovial tone.
The following is a conversation with Brent Suter before the Rockies-Reds game last month.
Patrick Lyons: Looks like you had a nice reunion with a group from your alma mater at Archbishop Moeller High School.
Brent Suter: Last three years they’ve done it. When I was a Rockie they did it. Last year, when we came here, they did it. Every time the Rockies and Reds played in Denver the last few years they’ve done.
Lyons: Last year, you were able to sign with Cincinnati. What’s it been like being able to play for your hometown team that you grew up watching?
Suter: It’s such a blessing. A dream of a dream. Being in the big leagues was amazing already, and then to be playing for the team I grew up loving – and living at home, seeing my family so much more, just little things like being able to see my dog, I only saw my dog a couple days a year last five or six years, friends and family coming all the games – it’s just amazing. So it’s a blessing that I do not take for granted at all. And it’s been incredible, like it’s been the blessing and the dream of a lifetime.
Lyons: You’re young enough that you were going to games at Great American Ballpark as a kid. Do you also remember Riverfront Stadium before that?
Suter: Yeah. Riverfront, Cinergy Field, whatever it’s called. I remember that. Remember when they were building Great American, I was still going to Cinergy games and seeing Great American being built, like ‘That’s gonna be a cool ballpark’ And then being able to play there now as a home field is pretty awesome. I remember Griffey Jr. and my first time seeing Griffey Jr. as a Red. I remember Barry Larkin games – all the guys, Adam Dunn, Aaron Harang. I’ve been able to meet a lot of these guys as they come back and see the Reds. So it’s just super cool. Couldn’t ask for anything better, man.
Lyons: Are there more of those moments where you feel like a kid at Great American Ballpark because that’s where you literally were a kid? At least more than other ballparks you visit?
Suter: Yeah. I think I sat in every section of that ballpark. So, yeah, just memories there. And then when I bring my son, Liam, to shag BP with me and to hang out with before games. It’s just like I’m a kid, but here’s my kid being a kid with me. It’s really cool, man. It’s really cool.
Lyons: Not that you’re back home spending more time with your dog, has gotten the juices flowing for writing Binky Bandit 2?
Suter: No plans yet. If he did it again – well, it came back a little bit with my second and third kids, just a tiny bit. But it wasn’t enough to write a book about.
Lyons: Sounds more like you’re waiting for the book to be optioned for a movie?
Suter: No directors have contacted me, so I don’t know about that. But certainly, if they want to make a kids movie about it, I would be open to it.
Lyons: You’re 35 now, right? Which is on the older side in MLB these days, but you don’t strike me as being this elder statesman. Can you attribute that to anything?
Suter: I look at age as just a number. (Laughs) You know, I work hard at keeping myself in shape – work hard, the diet. We have great nutritionists, great performance coaches in the Reds that help us stay in tune with the physical to the recovery and the mental side. I’ve done a better job of not letting the stress of the game wear me down as much, so I feel mentally fresh.
And that is another advantage of playing at home, as I’m able to just be at peace and be that much more refreshed every day mentally, which is great. I want to come in with youthful energy. Bring a smile and bring some energy to the field every day. And I feel like that helps kind of hold Father Time back a little bit. I feel like if you’re grumpy or always looking at the negative side of things, you’ll age quicker.
And I don’t know if there’s scientific research to that, but I think there’s something to be said about bringing energy and looking at the bright side of things, which I try to do. I think that helps age. I feel really good. I feel better than I did in my 20s, honestly, because I’ve gotten my routine honed in to know what I need to do to feel good and feel prepared every day.
Lyons: There’s less of that outside noise than when you’re in your 20s and establishing yourself. If there’s a bad outing, those negative thoughts about being sent down can creep in, I imagine.
Suter: That definitely helps too. At this point, my dad and I always talk about playing with house money now. I’ve been able to make a career out of baseball. (I want to) see how long I can go. So, every outing is still important. I want to win. I want to help the team win, but it’s a little bit less life or death on the logistics side or like the financial side and all that stuff. So that definitely helps.
Lyons: Besides your year with the Colorado Rockies, you spent parts of three seasons in Triple-A with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Is it weird looking back at some of the minor league teams that you played with and realized that many of them don’t exist anymore, like Colorado Springs (CO) and Helena (MT) and Brevard County (FL) and Huntsville (AL)?
Suter: It’s wild. I wasn’t a big fan of the retraction. I thought a lot of those towns were great baseball towns and it kept those people involved in Major League Baseball really well because they wanted to see their players go excel at the big league level. I didn’t know, I don’t know what the financials were of the situation, but I know the more teams, the better on my end. More jobs, more baseball involvement throughout the country. So I’m a big fan of more teams.
Lyons: When you came to the Reds last year — or even this year — are there young guys coming up to you and asking about what it was like being a pitcher who got to hit? And do they know you have a homer on the back of your baseball card, too?
Suter: A lot of guys don’t know that I hit a home run. It was May, a regular season game, wasn’t in the playoffs. Once we get talking about it, they go, ‘What?’ I’m the same way. A blind squirrel found a nut. I just ran into one. But it’s definitely fun to think about hitting a home run because now no one’s hitting anymore. No pitchers are hitting anymore. That was kind of my window and I luckily got one out of it.
Lyons: You can also throw in like, ‘Oh, do you want to check the Baseball Reference page of the guy who I homered off?’ Two Cy Young Awards?
Suter: Yeah, definitely when I say who I hit it off of they’re like, ‘Whoa.’ I just got lucky.
Lyons: Last question, maybe most important. Are you any closer to linking up with Jim Carrey in any way?
Suter: Yes and no. I have a friend who’s the director in Hollywood who is friends with Jim. That’s kind of the avenue we’re going and I see him a decent amount, but I just don’t know if he sees Jim all the time. But, I’m telling you what: he’s one of the guys I would most love to meet. Ken Griffey Jr is up on the list.
I still haven’t met Ken Griffey Jr, but Jim Carrey, Paul McCartney, those are some of the guys I’d most like to meet, for sure. Willie Mays was way up there until he passed. I mean way up there. But yeah, I’d love to just break some bread with Jim Carrey and just pick his brain and just get to know him. That’d be cool.
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