Phillies Offseason Stay or Go: Ranger Suarez

Sports fans won't always recognize the names of player agents working behind the scenes to help their clients land the big-money contracts. However, there’s at least one notable exception in Major League Baseball.

The Philadelphia Phillies notoriously battled Scott Boras in the J.D. Drew saga after the 1997 MLB Draft. Their fortunes with Boras played out differently in 2019 when Bryce Harper became arguably the most important player acquisition in franchise history.

A less publicized – but certainly impactful – relationship will finally reach the forefront during the upcoming MLB offseason with Ranger Suarez expected to become a free agent.

Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies have balked at numerous opportunities to make Suarez a part of their long-term future. Durability questions have pushed the front office to show plenty of indicators of their skepticism.

Suarez’s unconventional career arc has somehow landed a fan favorite and intermittently shutdown starter in a situation with almost no foreseeable scenario to remain with the Phillies in 2026.

The Venezuelan lefty missed his biggest opportunity to prove himself as a reliable option in an MLB starting rotation for a 162-game regular season in 2024. Suarez dominated with a 1.83 ERA in 16 starts before the midway point of the season. He dipped with health issues and eventually hit a tailspin with a 6.54 ERA in 11 starts during the second half.

Suarez less drastically showed the same characteristics with a late start to the 2025 season, making his debut on May 4. He ultimately reached a career high with 157⅓ innings. His 3.20 ERA ranked 28th among 127 pitchers (77th percentile) who threw at least 100 innings.

However, a 4.10 ERA after the trade deadline and declining fastball velocity helps the Phillies to forget about his peak moments with nasty left-handed hooks and an excellent mix of pitches in different parts inside and outside the strike zone.

A midseason transition from reliever to starter in 2021 and an irregular workload in 2023 because of offseason visa issues have also contributed to Suarez's sporadic availability and effectiveness.

Dombrowski invested heavily in Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola as the long-term foundation of the starting rotation with extensions entering the 2024 season.

While the allocation of resources in starting pitchers tightened the budget for Suarez, the vote of confidence in the veteran righties also showed a stylistic preference for workhorse pitchers at the top of the majors in innings pitched.

Could the Phillies have found the additional budget to invest in a younger left-hander still developing into a long-term building block? Yes, but they deliberately chose to extend Cristopher Sanchez instead of Suarez. Dombrowski kept that dominant changeup in Philadelphia with a frugal four-year contract worth just $22.5 million through 2028.

The future Hall of Fame executive even prioritized another cheaper, emerging left-hander by trading for Jesus Luzardo entering 2025. He believes in top prospect Andrew Painter as a long-term building block of the starting rotation.

The wandering eye has repeatedly reinforced the skepticism that Suarez will ever reach the 200-inning range and earn the type of lucrative long-term investment potentially exceeding $100 million that Scott Boras will demand.

Other major league organizations also don’t prioritize the workhorse characteristics of starting pitchers as heavily as the Phillies do.

Phillies starters led the majors in innings pitched in 2025. Their comfortable distance atop the leaderboard by 41⅔ innings was greater than the distance between the Cleveland Guardians in 2nd and the Tampa Bay Rays in 14th. An MLB club without the luxury of excellent starting pitching will show less reluctance to pay a free agent like Ranger Suarez.

The fit simply isn’t there with a Phillies organization looking to shuffle its roster.

Ranger Suarez signed as an amateur free agent on April 1, 2012, four days before Charlie Manuel’s Phillies met their Waterloo season to end the most successful era in franchise history. The organization’s desperate attempts to avoid a similar fate in 2026 will somehow almost certainly require them to let a fan favorite and key contributor walk away.

Mark Feinsand listed the Angels, Blue Jays, and Giants as potential fits.

The Phillies passed on sensible opportunities to trade Suarez in the past calendar year. However, Boras will have to reject a qualifying offer for his client to reach free agency. The process will make the Phillies eligible for draft compensation if Suarez finally signs the big ticket.

A club like the Giants with a big budget that’s chased free agents in recent offseasons might spend on a pitcher the Phillies won't prioritize.

Expect a standing ovation in 2026 when Ranger Suarez takes the mound at the ballpark where he threw the final out of the National League Championship Series four years earlier. Don't expect him to be wearing red pinstripes when it happens.