Suárez opens crucial contract year with minor scare in solid outing

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Ranger Suárez showed where the one-hopper nicked his fingertip on Tuesday at BayCare Ballpark.

He had tried to barehand a ball in the fifth inning in his first start of the spring. He said he realized midway through the play that he shouldn’t try to catch it, so he pulled back his hand at the last second. Manager Rob Thomson and Trea Turner chided him on the mound for his lapse in judgment. Alec Bohm chucked his glove at him, once he knew he was OK.

Suárez smiled. He is fine.

He pitched two scoreless innings in the Phillies’ 12-3 Grapefruit League loss to New York. He allowed one hit. He got two swing-and-miss strikeouts on his changeup. He got good results, although his velocity was down across the board, including his four-seam fastball (89.8 mph). It was down 2.6 mph from last spring’s average and 2.0 mph from last season’s regular-season average.

“Just remember, I never threw fast,” Suárez said in English.

But everybody is watching Suárez closely this year. It might be the most important year of his life.

He will be a free agent after the season. A good year could mean a monstrous payday, while an uneven season could cause teams to hedge their bets.

Suárez can be one of baseball’s best pitchers when he is right. He pitched like the NL Cy Young frontrunner the first three months of the 2024 season. He went 10-2 with a 1.83 ERA in 16 starts. He made his first NL All-Star team. But back, hamstring and shoulder issues derailed him. He spent time on the injured list. He finished 2-6 with a 6.54 ERA in his final 11 starts.

Suárez said Tuesday that the back was his biggest hindrance last year. He said he has worked to prevent a relapse.

“It’s about being healthy for the whole year,” Suárez said through the team’s interpreter.

The Phillies have talked about monitoring Suárez’s workload to keep him healthy and effective from the beginning of the season to the end. He was the last Phillies starter to make an appearance this spring, but the Phillies said nothing should be read into that.

“I don’t think it’s going slowly,” Suárez said. “I think everything is going well.”

He hopes it continues as he begins this year of uncertainty. Suárez has spent almost half his life with the Phillies. He signed as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela in 2012. He turns 30 on Aug. 26.

“It’s about staying in Philly,” Suárez said. “This is my childhood club, my childhood organization. I’ve played here since I was really young. All I think about is staying here. I want to pitch here for the rest of my career.”

Suárez, J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber are Phillies mainstays who will be free agents after the season. It is difficult to imagine the Phils re-signing all three. The Phillies might have prepared for Suárez’s potential departure in the offseason when they acquired Jesús Luzardo in a trade with Miami in December.

Luzardo is under team control through the 2026 season.

Top prospect Andrew Painter could join the rotation midsummer, too. They expect him to be a mainstay.

“I don’t want to think about leaving this place ever,” Suárez continued. “I want to keep believing that I’m going to stay here and that I’m going to stay here for a long time. Because that’s all that I want.”

But Suárez has prepared for his future. He hired super-agent Scott Boras in the offseason. Boras typically takes his clients to free agency.

It will probably happen with Suárez, too.

“It’s about going through the season, and going after that after the season is over,” he said. “We’re going to see what happens.”

In the meantime, Suárez wants to pitch well in what could be baseball’s best rotation. He wants to win a World Series.

“It’s a tremendous group of pitchers,” Suárez said. “All of our guys are great.”

Suárez was great through late June last year. The goal is to be great through the end of October.

If he does, maybe he stays in the Cy Young conversation.

“We all know to get a Cy Young you need to pitch really well for a whole season,” Suárez said. “I think that’s the first thing I have to do. Remain healthy. Pitch well. But I’m focused on staying healthy throughout the year.”