Slugging Cincinnati Reds 3B Eugenio Suárez is known to be one of baseball’s most streaky hitters, one who jumps up to provide weeks at a time of prodigious power that can carry a single lineup. That’s why the Reds brought him back to their roster for 2026 on a $15 million deal, after all – their mostly punchless lineup needed a big bat to bolster their chances at a second straight postseason run.
Problem is, Geno got hurt early on. An oblique strain sent him to the shelf for longer than anything else
in his career has been able to pull off, and that paired with an absent spring training (while on duty with Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic) has made for an overall dismal season for their long-time star.
All of that paired with slipping defense at 3B meant Geno went nowhere at the August 3rd trade deadline this summer. Cincinnati held on to him, presumably because there simply were not enough offers (if any), and they even chose to place him on waivers at the end of August as the deadline for teams to add players who’d be eligible for their postseason rosters came, and went.
Nobody claimed Geno. The roughly $3 million left on his contract was simply too much for the gamble.
Geno sat idle on August 3rd as the deadline came, went, and he still had a Cincinnati Reds uniform in his locker. He suited up in said uni on August 4th, and he’s been precisely the kind of Geno the Reds hoped they’d get all year ever since.
In 30 games (119 PA) since the Reds couldn’t find a suitor for him at the deadline, Geno has hit a robust .234/.378/.511 (.889 OPS) with 7 homers, 23 ribbies, and a 19/33 K/BB. Yeah, he’s still striking out like the guy who swings and misses more often than anyone in the sport, but that’s just who he’s become over the last decade while socking dingers at a rate not seen across the sport (non-Judge edition). He’s even added an eye, though, as those walks and OBP demonstrate.
Sadly, it hasn’t been enough to help the ol’ Reds enough, however. The Reds went into their August 3rd day off 5 games under the .500 mark, and they woke up today, September 7th, at 5 games under the .500 mark, too. That’s not on Geno this time around, though, as his bat woke up just like everyone knew it eventually would.
I do think it’s likely annoying enough to at least a handful of MLB execs across the league who thought picking up Geno on the cheap would be a bargain down the stretch and, for whatever reasons, got out-voted in the final decision-making process.
It won’t be enough to carry the Reds to a miracle finish like the 2021 St. Louis Cardinals, surely, but it would make for an entertaining end to an otherwise moribund Reds campaign in 2026 if Geno found a way to go nuclear for the final three weeks, too.
