CLEARWATER, Fla. — Starting a game that featured superstars Trea Turner and Zack Wheeler on one side and top prospects Jackson Holliday and Colton Cowser on the other, Albert Suárez was hardly a name that stood out on the Orioles’ lineup card Tuesday.
The 34-year-old journeyman pitcher last appeared in an MLB game in 2017. After taking his career overseas to pitch in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and the Korea Baseball Organization, he signed a minor league deal with the Orioles in September and re-signed for the 2024 season a month later. Suárez was flying below the radar as well as anyone before being named the starter for Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
He caught just about everyone by surprise with his performance, especially the Phillies. Suárez racked up an impressive seven strikeouts in three scoreless innings, averaging 96.3 mph on his fastball and topping out at 97.5. Only two batters reached base against him.
“He really threw the ball extremely well,” manager Brandon Hyde said after the game. “I’m really impressed with his strike-throwing ability. Big-time life to his fastball. He’s throwing his fastball by major league hitters, but he’s got four pitches he throws for strikes and he’s got command of them. It’s going to be fun to watch. This guy, a lot of people don’t know a whole lot about him and he’s come in here and thrown 97 with good secondary stuff.”
Perhaps relatively unknown to the baseball community at large, the Orioles have been paying close attention to Suárez for months. The KBO’s Samsung Lions released him in August because of a calf injury and he returned to the U.S. to sign with Baltimore a month later. The Orioles then sent him to their spring training complex in Sarasota, Florida, for the rest of the season to work on his mechanics.
Their coaching staff worked with Suárez to improve his hip separation, helping him generate more power behind his throws. He then played winter ball in his home country of Venezuela to work on his pitch selection. Position players in the Japanese and Korean leagues tend to hit to contact and spray the ball over the field, but the launch angle revolution has spurred a power-heavy approach in MLB that’s spread to Latin American winter ball leagues.
“It’s a different approach when you go there,” Suárez said of playing in Asia. “You see hitters, they take different at-bats. When you come here, you see guys hitting for power and that’s the main reason I went to pitch winter ball. If I want to come back to MLB, I have to be able to get guys out when they swing for power and adjust to that.”
Suárez, whose younger brother Robert is a reliever with the San Diego Padres, re-signed with the Orioles this offseason to see those changes through. So far in camp, he’s looked like a new pitcher and legitimate candidate to reach the majors in 2024. The club is stretching him out as a starting pitcher, which likely means he is ticketed to begin the year in Triple-A Norfolk as organizational starting depth.
However, the Orioles’ rotation has already been hit hard by injuries with Kyle Bradish on an uncertain timeline as he rehabs a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and John Means on a delayed ramp-up program coming back from his own elbow injury. Suárez would be among the club’s top options if another injury were to arise.
“You never know until you really see somebody but he’s come in here and opened up a lot of eyes and keeps doing what he’s doing, it’s fun to watch,” Hyde said. “But just the way he throws strikes. That kind of the veteran kind of veteran moxie on the mound, nothing really fazes him. He can hold runners. He fields his position. He understands pitching and he’s pitched the last couple times he’s been out there.”
