Eugenio Suárez, the top free-agent hitter left on the market, has agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with the Reds, with a mutual option for 2027, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The team did not confirm the deal, which is pending a physical.
The top player moved at the 2025 Trade Deadline, Suárez showed he can still hit home runs in bunches. The slugging third baseman finished with 49 dingers, tying a career high, and posted a .228/.298/.526 slash line (.824 OPS). Thirty-six of those homers came in just 106 games with the D-backs before Suárez was sent back to Seattle in a Deadline blockbuster that netted Arizona three of the Mariners’ Top 30 Prospects.
Suárez cooled off after rejoining the Mariners, putting up a .682 OPS in 53 regular-season games before closing the postseason strong. After going just 2-for-21 in his first five playoff games of 2025, he racked up eight hits in Seattle’s final seven contests. He homered twice in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, including the go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning.
Set to enter his age-34 season in 2026, Suárez has already racked up 325 career home runs, averaging more than 27 in each of his 12 Major League seasons. He has surpassed 30 homers in six of the past seven full seasons (excluding 2020), with the lone outlier a 22-homer performance in 2023. After five straight years with an OPS in the .700s, Suárez tied his 2019 total with 49 dingers and posted his highest OPS since that season’s .930 mark.
While Suárez possesses plenty of pop, there’s also a lot of swing-and-miss to his game. His 29.8% strikeout rate ranked in the fifth percentile of qualifying hitters in 2025, and he led the AL in K’s in both 2022 (196) and 2023 (214). A strong fielder by Outs Above Average in both 2023 (+11 OAA) and 2024 (+3 OAA), Suárez graded out negatively (-6 OAA) at the hot corner in 2025.
Despite his limitations at the plate and on defense, the veteran from Venezuela is an established impact bat who can slide right into the middle of a batting order. He showed that from the start after being traded from the Tigers to the Reds following his 2014 debut campaign, spending seven years with Cincinnati and averaging 27 homers a year. He was traded to the Mariners before the 2022 season, dealt to Arizona after 2023 and eventually shipped to Seattle at the 2025 Deadline.
