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The Cardinals introduced Friday that they’ve signed lefty Andrew Suarez to a minor league contract and invited him to Spring Coaching. He’ll present some left-handed depth and a possible bullpen possibility after spending the previous two seasons pitching within the Korea Baseball Group (2021) and Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball (2022).
A second-round decide by the Giants again in 2015, Suarez pitched components of three massive league seasons in San Francisco, impressing with a stable 4.49 ERA in 160 1/3 frames as a rookie in 2018 earlier than regressing to a 5.79 ERA in 32 2/3 innings throughout his sophomore season. Suarez tossed simply 9 2/3 innings in the course of the shortened 2020 marketing campaign, bringing his profession ERA to 4.66 in 202 2/3 innings. He’s fanned a below-average 17.8% of his MLB opponents but in addition posted robust 7.8% stroll and 49.8% ground-ball charges as an enormous leaguer.
Suarez, 30, was wonderful with the KBO’s LG Twins again in 2021, pitching 115 1/3 innings of two.18 ERA ball with a 26.6% strikeout fee, 8.7% stroll fee and 57.1% grounder fee. That landed him a take care of NPB’s Yakult Swallows for the 2022 season, which he certainly hoped to make use of as a stepping stone for both a elevate on a second season in NPB or a return on to the massive leagues. Sadly, issues didn’t pan out that method; Suarez spent extra time with Yakult’s minor league membership than he did their high group, and he was roughed up for a 6.23 ERA in 21 2/3 frames whereas pitching with the Swallows’ top-level membership.
It’s not clear whether or not the Cardinals view Suarez as a starter or reliever, although he’d have a greater path to their roster if he had been to move to the bullpen for the upcoming season. He’s labored primarily as a beginning pitcher in his profession, however the Cardinals have Jordan Montgomery, Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz and Jack Flaherty penciled into the rotation now, with a number of depth choices behind them (e.g. Dakota Hudson, Jake Woodford, Matthew Liberatore, high prospect Gordon Graceffo). Within the bullpen, nevertheless, he may compete with Genesis Cabrera, Zack Thompson, Packy Naughton and JoJo Romero.
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