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Five quick thoughts on Red Sox signing of Ranger Suárez
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- Five quick thoughts on Red Sox signing of Ranger Suárez
Just days after losing out on free agent Alex Bregman , the Red Sox shifted focus and Wednesday reached agreement on a five-year deal worth $130 million with lefty free agent Ranger Suárez .
Here are five quick thoughts on the signing:
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1) The Red Sox may now have the deepest rotation of any team in the American League.
That rotation is headed by Garrett Crochet and also includes Surarez, Sonny Gray , Brayan Bello , and Johan Oviedo . That doesn’t begin to include veterans such as Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval . Nor does it include a trio of young pitchers, all lefties: Kyle Harrison , Payton Tolle , and Connelly Early .
Toronto , Seattle and the New York Yankees also have strong rotations, but none has the level of depth of options the Red Sox possess.
2) The free agent freeze-out is over.
Until noon on Wednesday, the Red Sox were the lone MLB franchise to not sign a major league free agent this winter. Colorado was the other, until a few weeks ago when the Rockies signed pitcher Michael Laurenzen, leaving the Red Sox alone in that regard – until Wednesday, that is.
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The five-year deal is also the longest deal the Sox have committed to a traditional free agent since they signed Trevor Story to a six-year, $140 million deal during spring training in 2022. The following December, through the international posting process, the Red Sox gave Masataka Yoshida a five-year, $90 million contract.
3) Workload has been an issue with Suárez.
Suarez hasn’t had any real major injury issues since becoming a regular, but he also hasn’t ever thrown as many as 160 innings in a regular season.
The 2025 season saw him throw a career high 157.1 innings.
For a pitcher who will turn 31 next summer, that could be viewed two different ways. On one hand, the relatively low innings total could be problematic; on the other, it could be that the Red Sox just signed a pitcher without a lot of wear and tear.
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4) Suárez has been an elite performer in the postseason.
While with the Phillies , Suarez was never his team’s No. 1 starter. That honor went to either Zack Wheeler , Aaron Nola or, more recently, Cristopher Sanchez.
But regardless of his spot in the rotation, when Suárez was called upon in October, he almost always delivered. In 11 games, eight of which were starts, Suárez was 4-1 with a 1.48 ERA.
The Red Sox will have to get to the postseason first, and especially, given the quality of the competition in their own division, that’s not a given. But should they qualify, they can feel good about giving the ball to Suárez for a big game.
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5) Give the Red Sox credit for a quick recovery.
On Saturday night, they lost out on Alex Bregman , who had been their top free agent target of the winter. With few other top hitters remaining on the market, it seemed as though the Bregman defection was a huge loss.
But as was reported, the Sox quickly pivoted from boosting the offense to improving the rotation. Few teams can match the Red Sox’ feat of acquiring three starting pitchers this winter.
The Sox still don’t have a bat to make up for the loss of Bregman. But at the very least, they’ve upgraded the starting rotation to the point where that failing isn’t as critical.
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