Eugenio Suárez’s Disaster Season Summed Up by Clearing Waivers

When the Cincinnati Reds reunited Eugenio Suárez, it was a cause for celebration. Suárez became a fan favorite quickly after joining the Reds in 2015 and gave fans some of their favorite memories during dark times, which led to a team-friendly contract extension. That extension saw him traded to Seattle in a salary dump before it ended.

The addition of Suárez this offseason was especially important because it added something the Reds desperately needed: power. You could almost guarantee he would add 30 home runs to the lineup, and with his home games coming at Great American Ball Park, 40 was not out of the question. Heck, he hit 49 last year.

However, his one-year, $15 million deal did raise some eyebrows. Coming off 49 home runs, he couldn’t find more money or term? What did other teams know that the Reds didn’t?

Cincinnati has since found out. The struggles reached a point where Suárez, along with TJ Friedl, was placed on waivers late Thursday night. It was a move that would save a couple of bucks for ownership during the last month of the season while also being framed as doing the right thing for the players. Oh yeah, that’s only if either one of them got claimed.

Neither player was claimed, and now they awkwardly remain with the Reds. A move that was seen as a home run quickly turned into a contract, and player, no team wanted.

What Went Wrong

Adding Suárez to the Reds roster made a lot of sense. It was a young team that could use a power bat and a great clubhouse veteran, all while avoiding a costly, long-term contract. It felt too good to be true, but any doubt was quickly wiped away once you saw Geno’s infectious smile with the C, once again, on his chest.

The way Suárez would find success was simple. It was the same avenue that led him to a career spanning over a decade. Hit a lot of homers. No one was asking him to change his patterns. Everyone knew the strikeouts would be part of the gig and poor defense was acceptable, so long as he hit his home runs.

Well, the power hasn’t been the same, and you can draw correlations to how poor his at-bats have been.

Especially in the first half, Suárez often looked like he did not have nearly as sound a plan at the plate as he did in previous years. Yes, swing and miss was always an issue, but his trend towards swinging at more pitches outside of the zone has continued. In fact, the last three years have seen the highest chase rates of his career, with 2026 coming in second only to last season.

We have often seen Suárez get behind early in a count this year, and you could almost consider him an out immediately. His 1.076 OPS when he gets ahead can’t make up for his .480 OPS in counts where pitchers are ahead and .617 OPS in even counts, because he simply doesn’t get ahead in the count often enough.

The difference between his 49 home run season and the 19 he’s collected so far this year might not appear all that drastic. However, for a profile like Suárez, a difference in two or three metrics can change the player’s entire value.

Let’s start with batted ball metrics. In 2026, Suárez has posted an 88.6 mph average exit velocity, his lowest in 10 years. That plays into his drop in barrel rate by nearly 4%, down to only 10.5% this season. Lastly, Suárez has pulled the ball in the air 4% less than he did each of the past two seasons.

Doesn’t feel like much, right? Well, when your entire value as a player relies on you doing something 30-35 times across 600 plate appearances, a dip like this can add up quickly. It goes to show how players so reliant on one outcome can lose their value so quickly with nothing else to fall back on.

Another area where Suárez fell behind was against breaking balls. We knew he could handle fastballs to an extent that would keep him alive, but breaking balls have given him fits in the past. This season, Suárez has a .345 SLG and .249 xSLG on breaking pitches, setting another low mark over the past 10 seasons.

Last season, Suárez had 20 home runs off breaking pitches. The year prior, 10. This season, he only has five. Well, how about off-speed pitches? Surely he hits lefties well and has taken advantage of a changeup or two, right?

Nope. Zero home runs on off-speed pitches. And off lefties? One. Suárez has had reverse splits at times in his career, but when your OPS off righties drops down to only .715, you cannot afford to post a .668 off lefties.

It is a season that started sideways and only got worse once he experienced an injury. How much did that factor in? I truly cannot say. What I can say is Suárez has not been the player the Reds needed him to be.

Another Free Agent Miss

I want to make something crystal clear. I was 100% in support of this signing. I was pounding the table for the Reds to add more power, and bringing back a player who was a perfect clubhouse veteran and was coming off a 49 home run season is something I think we were all excited for.

Like I said before, the money and term did make me question the move. Usually, players who had the same expectations that I had for Suárez get a lot more money and certainly more term. Something was fishy. Apparently, most teams knew something the Reds did not.

Suárez and his struggles only add to the list of players the Reds gave significant money to, only for their performance to tank. Mike Moustakas signed the richest free agent deal in team history only to be cut before the end of his contract. Shogo Akiyama was a significant signing in the same offseason and also was released.

Jeimer Candelario was given a three-year deal and didn’t reach the end of his term. How about Frankie Montas? That certainly did not go as planned. A number of smaller moves follow a similar story.

That’s not to say the Reds have not signed a good free agent in the past 10 years. Nick Castellanos had a good year before opting out, and Emilio Pagán also had a productive year. Nick Martinez, too. But finding examples of free agents who truly were worth the money and term is much more difficult to find.

In some ways the Suárez deal felt bulletproof. Even if the money and term had you reconsidering what you know, you could always point to a hitter-friendly ballpark helping whatever downward trend he was on. A one-year deal made you feel better even if you thought he was trending in the wrong direction.

Instead, what was essentially the worst realistic scenario played out. A fan favorite came back to do one thing he has always done, and that one thing vanished.

Final Thoughts

Bottom line, Suárez did not have room in his game for anything to go in the wrong direction. Think of it as a four-lane road. If one lane closes, you can still get through by shifting to other lanes, which might delay your arrival, but not by much. In this case, Suárez is on a one-lane country road with a tree blocking the way.

Cincinnati allowed any team to have him for the final stretch in exchange for only the cost of his contract, and they said no. If the Reds truly wanted to allow Suárez to join a contender and this move was not simply to save money, then they would have cut him. Let him sign somewhere of his choosing, cheap, and chase a ring. That is, if he was given a choice.

This signing, the way it played out, and the move to place him on waivers only to go unclaimed summarizes a lot about the Reds organization for far too much of the last 30 years. Disappointing.