Albert Suarez 2024

[OriolesMagic83]

I don't know if I would call Suarez the Most Valuable Oriole, but there's no way the Orioles are in position for a playoff slot w/o him.  Our rotation is in shambles w/ him, imagine how much worse it would be w/o him.

[theobird]

He is the best story of our season. I just really love a bounced around vet like this guy coming in and doing this. Kinda makes the hair on my back stand up. 

[zweem]

Maybe look at the guys in the 15k range--2 of them may be more valuable than 1 at{ 30+ for more years}.

[LookitsPuck]

34 years old and pumping mid/upper 90s. What a story. Guy is legitimately close to being MVO just strictly from the perspective of where would the O’s be without him? I get it - Gunnar, Burnes, but Suarez is up there.

[Safelykept]

Yes, Great story but looks to be a FA after this year.

[Chelsea_Phil]

Good, I hope he gets paid a lot by some team, likely not us

[ChosenOne21]

I don't know how he keeps doing it, but Albert, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Safelykept said:

Yes, Great story but looks to be a FA after this year.

I didn’t know that.  How does that work?  He doesn’t have that much ML service time.  

[survivedc]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I didn’t know that.  How does that work?  He doesn’t have that much ML service time.  

Sportrac has next year as his last pre-arb season, fwiw. 

[Safelykept]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I didn’t know that.  How does that work?  He doesn’t have that much ML service time.  

I dont know either, but it appears that way. Hes already been optioned 3 times nand has elected FA a couple of times. But if they do have control, would be some much needed good news. Baseball reference has his contract status as unknown. Service time is not mentioned.

[Safelykept]

3 minutes ago, survivedc said:

Sportrac has next year as his last pre-arb season, fwiw. 

I dont say no but when were his first two Arb seasons.would love to have him back.

[Safelykept]

14 minutes ago, Safelykept said:

I dont say no but when were his first two Arb seasons.would love to have him back.

My bad posted wrong, if they have 3 years of control that would be great.

[Aristotelian]

2 minutes ago, Safelykept said:

My bad posted wrong, if they have 3 years of control that would be great.

Bbref has him making the minimum this year but doesn't say when he will be a FA. Unusual situation. I hope we get to keep him, preferably cheap. 

[7Mo]

11 hours ago, Explosivo said:

He’s by far the greatest rags to riches story in baseball today. I would very much like to know the name of the scout who encouraged his signing. It’s such an incredible move and I’d love to see an interview done to both highlight that scout and their process.

The addition of Suárez, announced by the Orioles as one of seven minor league deals on Dec. 30, was the kind of offseason transaction that elicits little more than a yawn. But for Mike Snyder, the Orioles’ director of pro scouting, the move was years in the making. He first identified Suárez as a possible target in the fall of 2017, while preparing for the Rule 5 draft. Mike Elias was a year from becoming the Orioles’ general manager.

The Orioles continued to monitor him. Snyder wanted to sign him in the fall of 2022. But Suárez returned to the Samsung Lions with a seven-figure guarantee — a better opportunity than any major-league team was willing to give him.

What changed last year?

Suárez suffered a left calf injury in early August. The Lions, facing a Korea Baseball Organization cap on the number of foreign players they could carry, released him to replace him with another import, Taylor Widener. Snyder, seeing an opportunity that had not existed previously, contacted Suárez’s agent, Peter Greenberg.

“He’d been trying to get Albert for maybe the last three years. But the market in Asia moves very quickly,” Greenberg said. “He would always come to me early in the offseason here, but Albert would already have signed back in Japan or Korea. (Last year), though, he came to me and said, ‘I’m not going to be late this time. I want to try to sign Albert.’”

Snyder’s timing finally was right. The Lions wanted Suárez back, Greenberg said, but at a reduced salary in the $700,000-$800,000 range. Suárez was tired of being away. He is married with three children, ages 11, 8 and 4. The family lives in Katy, Texas. He had made decent money in Asia. He was ready to return full-time to the U.S.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5440749/2024/04/24/baltimore-orioles-scouting-albert-suarez/

It's not exactly what you asked for but close. 

[7Mo]

11 hours ago, Explosivo said:

He’s by far the greatest rags to riches story in baseball today. I would very much like to know the name of the scout who encouraged his signing. It’s such an incredible move and I’d love to see an interview done to both highlight that scout and their process.

A little bit more:

The Orioles under Elias generally are selective in signing minor-league free agents. They don’t like releasing such players in spring training, and prefer their draftees to get the bulk of playing time in the minors. Elias, though, said he entrusts Snyder and his pro scouting group to handle minor-league deals for pitchers. Special assignment scout Will Robertson and pro scouting analyst Ben MacLean, in particular, vouched for Suárez, Snyder said.

“We are always conscious of the difficulty of finding starting pitching. And we saw flashes with him over the years,” Snyder said. “He had been working in a length (role), throwing strikes. He had gained some velocity, starting in 2018 in relief, and sustained that a little bit in Asia. He (also) improved his secondaries.

“We sold him on an opportunity in spring training, that we would give him some rope. We didn’t promise he was going to make the rotation. We didn’t make any promises. If anything, we undersell things. And I think in the long run, that really helps us. When we say we have an opportunity, it’s a legitimate opportunity.”

Signing Suárez in September enabled the Orioles to bring him to their fall pitching camp in Sarasota, Fla., where he met their high-performance, training and coaching staffs. Assistant pitching coordinator Adam Schuck and minor-league pitching coordinator Mitch Plassmeyer developed a plan for him. A number of other coaches also worked with Suárez, helping him tweak his delivery so that he wouldn’t need to make adjustments while trying to make the club in the spring (Plassmeyer is now the major-league team’s assistant pitching coach).

“He opened our eyes from the stuff that was coming out of his hand,” Hyde told reporters when the team summoned Suárez to replace the injured Tyler Wells. “You see 96 and you see him throw his fastball by guys with life, and then the secondary stuff he was throwing for strikes also. And he kept doing it every five days. We were excited about it.”

Suárez was excited, too, telling Greenberg even after he got sent down, “This was my favorite spring training in a long time.” In Snyder’s view, Suárez returned from Asia as many pitchers do, more refined in his approach, more advanced in his craft. He also learned to pitch in front of large crowds, making the majors less intimidating than perhaps they once were.

It’s only two starts. But the Orioles appear to have nailed it again.

“They saw something a lot of people didn’t,” Greenberg said.