Robert Suarez

 

Name (Japanese): ロベルト・スアレス

Brief Biography:

Robert Alexander Suarez Subero was born and raised in Venezuela. Though he started playing baseball in his youth, he did not draw attention from MLB scouts. He stopped playing ball for a time and worked as a construction worker and taxi driver. In 2015 at age 23, he returned to the game, playing in Mexico for Saraperos de Saltillo. In 43 games out of the bullpen, Suarez racked up 23 saves, five wins, and recorded a 1.71 ERA with 48 strikeouts in 47.1 innings. He signed with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks that offseason and joined the team in 2016.

Though he began the year on the farm, Suarez quickly got called up and established his spot in the bullpen, appearing in 58 games, more than any other Hawks pitcher, other than closer Dennis Sarfate. He ended the year with 26 holds and 1 save, a 3.19 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 53 ⅔ innings. Suarez was then named to the 2017 Venezuelan team for the World Baseball Classic, but experienced sharp pain in his second game of the tournament. After multiple check-ups in Japan and America, he determined that Tommy John surgery was his best option. It cost him the entire 2017 season, plus most of 2018. When he did return in August 2018, he only got into 11 games and ended the year with a 6.30 ERA. In 2019, he attempted to get a spot in the starting rotation for the Hawks, and in fact started 6 games, but with middling results. On the year, which included three bullpen mounds, he had a 5.74 ERA, and the Hawks parted ways with him.

The Hanshin Tigers acquired Suarez on December 19, 2019, but because of his lack of results over the prior three seasons, he was seen as insurance in case Jon Edwards did not pan out as set-up man for closer Kyuji Fujikawa. In fact, Suarez’s break came sooner than many expected. Edwards was placed on the disabled list before the first series of the season was completed, and Suarez filled in admirably as set-up pitcher. Then in the middle of July, Fujikawa placed himself on the DL and Suarez became the team’s de facto closer. Suarez was dominant in his first three months as the ninth-inning man. He did not lose a single game or give up a single home run until October 15 against the Chunichi Dragons, when Shuhei Takahashi hit a walk-off bomb to the opposite field. He would allow just one more home run that season, finishing the year with a league-best 25 saves and a 2.24 ERA. With Fujikawa announcing his retirement at season’s end, the Tigers desperately wanted to hold onto their best bullpen weapon.

It took time to convince Suarez to stay with the Tigers in 2021. He had begun to draw interest from major-league clubs, but on December 26, the team announced it had signed Suarez to a one-year, ¥260 million (approx. $2.4 million) deal with a player option for 2022. After recording a save in the season opener, Suarez gave up a single run to the Hiroshima Carp on April 1, and then proceeded to go more than two months – until June 10 against the Nippon-Ham Fighters – without giving up another run. That is a stretch of 24 games, including 12 shutout innings in May that helped him win the Central League’s Pitcher of the Month Award. His ERA was a microscopic 0.35 when his streak came to an end, and remained below 1 until the end of the month. His first mound in July was by far his worst of the season, as he got knocked out of the game in the top of the ninth after giving up a run on three hits and a walk. Upon his exit, reliever Kosuke Baba allowed the inherited runners to score, leaving him with a four-run blemish on his record. He followed that up with 15 more consecutive scoreless mound appearances, and the two runs he gave up on September 23 against the Chunichi Dragons would be the last of his outstanding season. He ended the year with a slender 1.16 ERA and an outstanding 58:8 K:BB ratio. For his efforts, he not only got invited to the midseason all-star game, but also finished 6th in the voting for league MVP. 

Suarez set the club record for fastest pitch in team history (163 km/h = 101.3 mph) in 2021 and also earned the distinction of being part of the first pair of siblings in NPB history to record a save on the same day, as older brother Albert of the Yakult Swallows earned his just minutes after Robert did it on October 3. Suarez also picked up a fair amount of Japanese during his time with the Hawks and Tigers, impressing teammates and fans alike with not only his language ability, but his affable personality.

On December 2, the San Diego Padres announced that they reached an agreement with Suarez just before the MLB lockout for the 2022 season, paying him approximately $7 million, and giving him an option for 2023 as well. We wish him nothing but the best in this new chapter in his playing life.

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Tigers Add RP Suarez, OF Sands to Squad (December 20, 2019)