After I got done posting Wednesday night’s open thread, I ended it on this note:
The Braves were involved in a few rumors but nothing turned concrete. Maybe that’ll be the case in the near future? We’ll see what happens.
Well, less than 24 hours later, the Atlanta Braves have made two big free agency signings. They brought Mike Yastrzemski into the fold on a two-year deal and now they’ve apparently got the man that they were linked to earlier this week. There were multiple reporters saying that the Braves were interested
in Robert Suarez and as it turns out, there was something to that rumor because Suarez is now a member of the Atlanta Braves.
Jeff Passan of ESPN is reporting that the Braves and Suarez have agreed to a three-year, $45 million contract.
The Braves were searching for a high-end reliever to pair with Raisel Iglesias after they brought him back on a one-year deal earlier this offseason and they’ve pulled it off with this deal. Although Suarez is heading into his Age-35 season, he’s coming off of the best season of his career where he finished with an ERA of 2.97 (73 ERA-), a FIP of 2.88 (71 FIP-), a career-low walk rate of 5.9 percent and a solid strikeout rate of nearly 28 percent. The Braves clearly feel that he can keep on providing that type of production and it’ll certainly be exciting to see him light up the radar gun with that elite heater of his that sits at nearly 99 miles per hour.
The All-Star hurler will now join a bullpen that suddenly looks pretty tough to deal with at the end of ballgames. Atlanta was in search of improving their bullpen and they’ve done just that with the addition of Suarez. While the Braves could still use a starting pitcher, they’ve definitely done a solid job of improving their roster here in the offseason and it’ll be very interesting to see what’s next for improving the squad going forward.
