Eugenio Suarez started 2024 cold, leading to the Diamondbacks struggling. Now in the second half, he is as hot as ever.
3B Eugenio Suarez has been a massive contributor to the 2024 Arizona Diamondbacks season. During the first half, it would’ve been hard to believe Geno would contribute at all. We are seeing the former All-Star back in form after starting the season poorly and finishing last year with disappointing results. He’s certainly looked like a different player recently, on pace to put up numbers as good as they’ve ever been. Let’s see how much Suarez has improved from his first half, as well his last year.
Eugenio Suarez Seattle Mariners Tenure
The Seattle Mariners acquired Suarez from the Cincinnati Reds in the 2021-2022 offseason. This deal included OF Jesse Winker going to Seattle alongside Suarez. Cincinnati got back SP Justin Dunn, OF Jake Fraley, SP Brandon Williamson and SP Connor Philips. Seattle gave up quite the haul to acquire the services of the former All-Stars, and deservingly so. In seven years with Cincinnati, Suarez had an OPS+ of 110 and hit almost 200 home runs across those seasons. His best was 2019, hitting 49 homers with 100+ RBIs for the second season in a row, receiving MVP votes for the second time in his career.
While Winker’s 2022 didn’t go as planned, Suarez’s definitely did. Suarez posted 31 home runs and 87 RBIs with an OPS just under .800. Eugenio had his best OPS+ (129) since 2019 (131). That season was very reminiscent of his best years in Cincinnati, as he also led the league in strikeouts with 196. The biggest difference was his batting average, which was .236, similar to his previous couple of years, where he sacrificed average for power. This season was a big part in the Mariners breaking their 21-year playoff drought. He even impacted their postseason, hitting over .400 in the Wild Card Series and .273 in the ALDS with a home run.
The following season was a strange one for Suarez. Although playing in all 162 games that season, he only hit 22 home runs but drove in just under 100 RBIs and hit a career-best 29 doubles. He even recorded 12 Outs Above Average at third base, putting him in the 97th percentile that year. His biggest problem was the strikeouts and OPS. He once again led the league in strikeouts, this time at 214. His OPS was only .714, giving him an OPS+ of 103, definitely disappointing for someone supposed to give CF Julio Rodriguez protection in the lineup.
A New Third Baseman in the Desert
With Eugenio having two years left on his seven-year, $66 million dollar extension, The Mariners decided to trade him in a salary dump. The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired Eugenio Suarez in exchange for RP Carlos Vargas and C Seby Zavala. The Diamondbacks lost in the World Series the year prior and were looking to solidify the third base position. If the former All-Star could limit his strikeouts while providing his power and run producing potential, the D-Backs were more than willing to pay the rest of his contract, hoping he can help them win.
Suarez immediately slotted into the middle of the order, hitting 5th, 6th, or 7th depending on the matchup. April was good for him, finishing the month around a .240 average while driving in 18 runs and 7 doubles. Oddly enough, he only hit two home runs with the strikeouts still being a major problem, K’ing 34 times that month.
May and June were some of the worst baseball we’ve seen from the 33-year-old veteran. He had averages of .172 and .156 in each month while only being able to combine for four home runs. He only drove in 14 runners in those months, and in June he didn’t record a double. The strikeouts were now becoming a bigger issue because he was barely doing anything productive when putting the ball in play. He struck out 29 times both months, and now in the midst of an extremely underwhelming season. The Diamondbacks at this point were 41-43, while looking nothing like the World Series team they were last year.
In total for Eugenio Suarez’s first half, he played in 93 games, hitting 10 homers and collecting 48 RBIs. A .216 BA and .668 OPS gave him an OPS+ of 89, making him 11% worse than the league average hitter. Alongside these disappointing numbers, he’d struck out 106 times in 367 plate appearances. Clearly pitchers have figured out his weakness, in that he can’t hit sliders. Suarez has seen 428 sliders and hit .170 off of them, whiffing 40% of the time while striking out 30.4% of the time on the pitch.
A Major Breakout
Finally, Geno figured it out in the beginning of the second half, proving he is a spark for the team. He hit 10 homeruns and had 27 RBIs, accumulating a .333 batting average and 1.131 OPS in July. He even struck out the least amount of any month, at 26 times. This helped improve the Diamondbacks to 58-51 at July’s end. This is the hottest we’ve seen Suarez since his breakout season in 2019. Now that he’d proven that he can still produce, Arizona could be a real threat the rest of the season.
August saw him slow down a little bit, but the production was still there. A .260 BA and .782 OPS alongside five homers and 24 RBIs was more than enough to help the team. A 76-60 record at the end of August shows how Suarez’s production has been a major part of the season for the club. At this point, it seemed unlikely Geno could get hot again like he did in July. Turns out he was ready to explode again.
Now near the season’s end, Eugenio Suarez is as hot as ever. He’s hit .341 with a 1.033 OPS with 8 homers and 15 RBIs this month. Once again, he’s been the hottest hitter in baseball, this time to close out the season. He is a big reason the D-Backs sit 88-71 right now. If Suarez carries this into the postseason, the Diamondbacks could be a team to watch.
In total for the second half of the season, he’s hit .303 with a .939 OPS, just under 20 homers with 50 RBIs. This gave him a 157 OPS+, making him 57% better than the league average hitter. He has hit nine more homeruns and matched his RBI total from the first half in just 62 games, 32 less than before.
Currently, Eugenio Suarez has 29 homers and 98 RBIs, poised to get 30 and 100. Alongside that, he has 28 doubles, a batting average over .250, and just under an .800 OPS. He’s struck out 171 times this season, on pace for his least since 2021. To say what Suarez has provided for the Arizona Diamondbacks is an understatement, given his first half. It is no coincidence that Arizona got hot when he did, as in losses for the team, he’s hit .193 with a .590 OPS. In wins, he’s hit .301 with a .937 OPS. Regardless of what happens in the playoffs, the bounce back Suarez has had is amazing to see, and an underrated part of the success for the 2024 Arizona Diamondbacks.
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