By Steve Adams | at
The Diamondbacks could be in the market to move on from one of their top offseason acquisitions, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote in his Sunday Notes column that the Snakes are “willing to listen to offers” on third baseman Eugenio Suarez. That’s perhaps some charitable terminology, as Nightengale himself goes on to note that the 33-year-old Suarez has struggled to the point that he could soon lose his hold on an everyday role at third base.
Suarez, acquired in a salary-driven trade that sent backup catcher Seby Zavala and relief prospect Carlos Vargas to the cost-cutting Mariners, is earning $12MM this season and has a $15MM club option for the 2025 campaign on his contract. The Diamondbacks do not intend to exercise that option at this time, per Nightengale, which is only natural given Suarez’s bleak .200/.265/.317 slash in his first 257 trips to the plate with Arizona.
While Suarez hasn’t seen his already hefty strikeout rate creep any further north — he fanned in 30.4% of last year’s plate appearances and is at 28.8% in 2024 — there are nevertheless plenty of worrying trends that suggest his decline isn’t necessarily an early-season fluke. He’s chasing pitches off the plate at the highest rate of his career and making contact on said swings at a career-low rate. His average exit velocity (87.5 mph) and hard-hit rate (33.5%) have cratered from last year’s levels (90.3 mph and 43%). Suarez has never seen a larger percentage of his fly-balls be of the infield fly variety, either; after popping out to the infield only 10 times in both 2022 and 2023, he’s already hit eight harmless infield pops this season.
Suarez actually got out to a hot start this season, and even as his production began slipping a bit in the second half of April, his batting line to that point in the season was within arm’s reach of league-average. Since the calendar flipped to May, his bat has taken a nosedive. In his past 131 plate appearances, Suarez is hitting .161/.221/.280 with a 30.5% strikeout rate.
Finding a trade partner for Suarez in light of recent swoon and considerable salary won’t be easy. Generally, veterans in this situation are likelier to be designated for assignment and released. But there’s also typically at least one or two exchanges of bad contracts every deadline season, with last year’s Guardians/Dodgers swap of Noah Syndergaard and Amed Rosario standing as one recent example. With four players signed through at least 2026 and three through 2027, the D-backs might not want to take on a particularly long-term player, but swapping out Suarez for another impending free agent or perhaps someone signed through 2025 at a lesser annual value could make some sense.
Despite his downturn at the plate, Suarez has accounted for nearly every inning at third base for the D-backs this season. Jace Peterson got one start there before being cut loose. Rookie Blaze Alexander has made three appearances there (two starts). All three have come in the past 12 days, however, lending further credence to Nightengale’s assertion that Suarez could soon be pushed out of his regular role.
Alexander, 24, is a natural shortstop who’s hit .283/.345/.409 in his first 139 MLB plate appearances this season. That line is propped up by the disproportionate rate at which the right-handed-hitting Alexander has been platooned. He’s seen nearly half his plate appearances against lefties and tormented them with a .350/.409/.533 batting line. Against right-handed pitchers, Alexander’s .224/.288/.299 slash doesn’t look any better than Suarez’s season-long numbers.
The top alternative in the upper minors would be Deyvison De Los Santos, who’s in the midst of a breakout after failing to make the Guardians’ roster as a Rule 5 Draft pick. In 238 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season, the 20-year-old slugger touts a combined .358/.412/.656 batting line and 17 home runs. He’s also trimmed his strikeout rate from the 26% he logged in Double-A a year ago to a much stronger 21.4%.
All in all, the D-backs rank 29th in the majors in terms of production from their third basem*n, by measure of wRC+. Their combined .200/.258/.317 slash is 36% worse than average when weighting for home park and league run-scoring environment, leading only the White Sox (.197/.248/.288, 52 wRC+).
