The Yankee rotation, when fully healthy, has the potential to be on the very shortlist for the best in Major League Baseball. Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, and Cam Schlittler is a very strong
top five, not even mentioning that you then have Luis Gil, who was just AL Rookie of the Year a year ago, and Will Warren behind, both of whom have shown flashes, just not consistency.
The issue for the Yankees going into 2026 is that they’re not completely healthy. Cole should hopefully be on the comeback trail from Tommy John surgery, but Schmidt will be out for a while having undergone one himself. Rodón will be out to start the season after getting surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow. Gil hasn’t had the cleanest bill of health over his MLB career. Schlittler and Warren are also still very early into their careers and it’s always fair to wonder how young pitchers can handle going from the minors to a full 162-game season.
If the Yankees do hold any concerns about their rotation going into 2026, there are options out there, and one of the more intriguing ones is Ranger Suárez. Should the Yankees kick the tires on him and add to their potentially excellent rotation?
2025 Statistics: 26 games, 157.1 innings, 3.20 ERA, 137 ERA+, 3.21 FIP, 3.61 xFIP, 23.2 K%, 5.8 BB%, 4.0 fWAR
2026 FanGraphs Depths Charts Projections: 29 games, 169.0 innings, 3,55 ERA, 3,62 FIP, 21.8 K%, 6.8 BB%, 3.3 fWAR
Suárez has spent all eight of his major league seasons with the Phillies, having signed with them as an international free agent out of Venezuela in 2012. While he was a starter throughout most of his minor league career, the Phillies used Suárez as a bit of a swingman in his early years in the majors. Injuries led to him joining the rotation full time in 2021, and he hasn’t relinquished his spot since. In all five of his MLB seasons in which he’s made more than a handful of starts, Suárez has posted better than average ERA.
While there are few points of his career where he hasn’t been at least pretty good, Suárez’s peaks can be dominant. He started the 2024 season looking like he was going to be an NL Cy Young candidate, posting a 1.83 ERA in 98.1 innings to start that year, getting named an All-Star. He didn’t quite keep up that pace, but he was still very good in 2024, and then was even better in 2025 as he set a new career high in innings pitched.
One thing that may be of interest to Yankees’ fans is that Suárez has also been a very good playoff performer. In 11 games and 42.2 innings in the postseason, he has a 1.48 ERA and 3.02 FIP. He helped the Phillies to the 2022 World Series, where he came out of the bullpen to help them win Game 1 and then threw five shutout innings in Philly’s other win in Game 5.
In terms of stuff, Suárez is not a flame-throwing power pitcher, as his four-seam fastball only averaged about 91 MPH. Instead, he relies on a six-pitch mix that generates weak contact. His average exit velocity of 86.5 is one of the better marks in MLB. While he doesn’t generate an overwhelming amount of swings and misses, his 23.2% K rate last year was still more middle of the pack than towards the bottom.
One downside of Suárez is that he has had some injured list stints over his time in the majors. I mentioned that he hit a career high in innings this past season, but that number was only 157.1. Mind you, none of his injuries have been all that serious, but that’s still something to think about.
As for what type of contract he might get, MLB Trade Rumors projects him for five years and $115 million. Obviously, that’s a contract the Yankees easily could handle, the question will just be if Suárez is one they want to try for. Another #2 type starter would be plenty helpful for the Yankees if they want to do it, it just remains to be seen to what level they’ll try and address the rotation.
