Injured Phillies All-Star Pitcher Shines in First Rehab Outing

The Philadelphia Phillies' starting pitching rotation is as good as anyone’s in baseball, despite not yet being whole.

They have not yet had the pleasure of deploying Ranger Suarez, who is working his way back to the mound after suffering an injury during spring training.

Battling a back ailment, he was limited to only 5.0 innings of work during Grapefruit League games and was able to get 4.0 innings on the back fields of the Carpenter Complex to get some more work in.

Given his lengthy history of dealing with back injuries, the Phillies have shown an abundance of caution in ramping up his workload.

On Thursday, Suarez took the mound for the first time with Single-A Clearwater and looked to be in midseason form.

He needed only 33 pitches to make it through three scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and striking out four. His stuff was right in line with what he was doing at full health in 2024, with his fastball sitting between 90-92 mph all evening.

His first two fastballs were clocked at 92.6 mph and 92.5 mph, meaning Suarez was throwing the ball harder in his rehab assignment than he did last season.

In 2024, his fastball averaged 91.8 mph; on Thursday night, it was up to 92.2 mph. 

Whatever the reason may have been for the uptick in velocity, whether it was because he knew his outing was shorter so he could let loose a little more or maybe he did add some velocity with offseason work, it is an encouraging development.

Alas, based on the number of pitches that he threw, Suarez is making progress toward a return to the Major League rotation but is still a few weeks away.

It is going to take at least two, if not three more rehab starts before he is stretched out enough to make appearances in the Big Leagues, per Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia. He has essentially been redoing spring training after throwing only nine innings in camp.

His absence hasn’t hurt Philadelphia to this point.

Their big offseason acquisition, Jesus Luzardo, has been excellent out of the gate. He is looking like the 2022 and 2023 version of himself, which is great news for the Phillies and terrible news for their opponents.

Suarez’s replacement in the rotation, Taijuan Walker, has been answering the call as well.

After a disastrous 2024 campaign, he has started 2025 off with 10.2 shutout innings, looking like a totally different player than he was last year.

It will be interesting to see how manager Rob Thomson handles things once Suarez is ready to rejoin the team, especially if everyone keeps up this level of production.