RADIO
Suarez Can Help Fantasy Owners Now and in the Future
Last season, Eugenio Suarez broke into the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers, who struggled to find a consistent presence at shortstop after losing Jose Iglesias in Spring Training to stress fractures in both shins. When the season started, Alex Gonzalez filled that role, but only made it to April 20th before being released from the team. That position was a patchwork job in Detroit for much of the remainder of the season, but the bulk of the innings were split between Suarez and Andrew Romine, a defense-first utility man.
Suarez appeared in 85 games for the Tigers in 2014, and we'll talk about those games in a minute. But first, let's talk about his MiLB production. Suarez spent 5 seasons at various levels in the minors before getting the call up to the big show last year. He showed promise there, particularly in his ability to get on base. Suarez owns a career .361 OBP at the minor league level and was plugging along at a .404 clip in AAA before joining the Tigers.
When he got to the bigs, Suarez continued to do what had made him successful in the minors. In June, his first month with Detroit, Suarez put together a respectable .279/.364/.485 triple slash line. Those OBP numbers were aided by the fact that Suarez walked in 11.25% of his plate appearances, demonstrating plate discipline that many young hitters lack.
Suarez's numbers fell off ever-so-slightly in July and August as Major League pitchers realized that he could hit fastballs and stopped throwing him so many. Still, in those months Suarez managed OBP numbers of .310 and .302 while posting a 21.6% line drive rate, which is slightly higher than the league average. Suarez saw his production decline significantly in September and October as the Tigers opted to go with Romine at the shortstop position more often. Part of that dip was due to an incredibly unlucky .250 BABIP that was considerably lower than his .316 mark for the season.
In Summary
Suarez is in Cincinnati for the 2015 season and could see innings at both SS and 3B for the Reds. That multi-position eligibility could help make up for the fact that he won't be starting at either position. Suarez could be a nice addition in as long as he is able to replicate his numbers from June through August of last season. The more often he's able to get on base, the more chances he'll get to do just that. At the very least, Eugenio Suarez is worth considering in very deep leagues or NL-only leagues. He is a solid bench option for this year, and a player with the potential to become a very consistent big-league hitter in the future.
