The Boston Red Sox have signed free agent pitcher Ranger Suarez to a 5 year, $130M on Wednesday the club announced.
Suarez is the first major signing of the offseason for a Boston side that has completed a couple of trades, but had yet to make a splash on the free agent front. The 30 year old will join a rotation that features Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray and Brayan Bello.
Beyond the starting 4, Boston will also feature a bevy of options to round out their starting pitching group including Connelly Early, Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck, Kyle Harrison, Patrick Sandoval, and Johan Oviedo. The additions of Suarez and Gray helps lengthen a group of starters which turned in an uneven performance in 2025 from the 3-5 slots in the rotation.
A left handed pitcher known for his ability to throw six different pitches effectively, Suarez stayed on the open market in part due to concerns about his dropping velocity. Despite his fastball now sitting somewhere around the 91.2 MPH range, he’s lowered his era in each of the last 3 seasons, while improving his WAR each of those years as well.
Suarez set career highs in 151 strikeouts across 157 innings pitched last year, but also dealt with recurring back problems. Since debuting with the Phillies in 2018, the former All-Star sports a 53-37 record with a 3.38 ERA and 705 Ks across 762 IP.
He would become a full-time starter in 2022 Suarez has logged a 21.9% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate, and 50.8% ground ball rate. Perhaps the most impressive feat however is his 1.48 ERA across 42.2IP in the postseason for Philadelphia over that span. A trait Boston could have desperately used this past fall.
According to initial reports, the deal does not appear to contain any deferred money, opt outs, or trade restrictions.
Boston now has plenty of Major League arms at their disposal, and appear to be positioning themselves for a trade to move some of that starting pitching for infield help if their ongoing negotiations with free agent Bo Bichette fall through. Nico Hoerner, Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, Brendan Donovan, and Ketel Marte are names that have been linked to the organization over the last several weeks with varying degrees of interest.
Photo: Ian D’Andrea. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.