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Ranger Suarez

Phillies Activate Ranger Suarez, Johan Camargo From Injured List

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The Phillies made a pair of corresponding roster moves today, per the club. Johan Camargo and Ranger Suarez were activated from the 15-day injured list, while a pair of former number one overall draft picks in Mickey Moniak and Mark Appel were optioned back to Triple-A. Suarez has been an important piece of the Phillies rotation this year.

Through 15 starts, the southpaw has a 4.33 ERA/4.26 FIP in 79 innings, not all that far off from the 109 frames that he totaled last season, which was a career-high. Suarez steps back into the rotation that includes righties Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Kyle Gibson.

Appel gave the game one of the feel-good stories of the year when he made his Major League debut. Appel, who turned 31 yesterday, was twice a first-round pick, taken eighth overall by the Pirates and then first overall by the Astros in the following draft. It took until June 29th of this season for the big righty to get his first shot in the show, however.

Appel has now taken the hill four times for the Phillies, including a pair of multi-inning outings this month. In total, Appel registered seven innings of work, allowing just a single earned run on six hits and two walks while striking out three. For now, he’ll return to Triple-A, where he owns a 1.61 ERA over 19 relief outings totaling 28 innings with a 24-to-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Moniak, the first overall selection of the 2016 draft, has had limited opportunities with the Phillies over the past couple of seasons. This year, he has amassed 50 plate appearances over 18 games of action, slashing .130/.184/.152 in that time.

Camargo returns to take back his roster spot as a key reserve for the Phils. Capable of playing the infield or the outfield, Camargo’s value largely comes from his versatility. He has struggled with the bat, however, posting a 74 wRC+ on the year, which is his highest such mark since his 2018 breakout with the Braves.

Injury Notes: Suarez, Soto, Montas

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The Phillies have placed starter Ranger Suarez on the 15-day injured list because of lower back spasms, retroactive to June 30, per the club. The Phillies had boasted one of the healthier rotations this season before losing both Suarez and Zach Eflin to the injured list this week. A corresponding roster move will likely be made before Tuesday’s game against the Nationals. The Phillies have an off day tomorrow to set up their rotation. In other injury news…

  • Juan Soto left today’s Nationals’ game with an apparent hamstring injury. It was later revealed to be tightness in Soto’s left calf that prompted his departure. He will have an MRI and be re-evaluated tomorrow, per Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). Obviously, it would be crushing for the Nationals to lose Soto for any amount of time. Even with him, the Nats don’t have much hope for postseason play, but Soto remains the best and brightest attraction at Nats Park.
  • Athletics starter Frankie Montas left today’s start early after seeing a drop in velocity, per MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos. Montas’ heater was 2.4 mph slower than usual, while his sinker was 2.7 mph slower on average, notes Gallegos. The initial diagnosis is inflammation, reports Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle, but they will need more time to evaluate. Not only is Montas Oakland’s nominal ace, but he’s been one of the more sought-after arms when it comes to the August 2nd trade deadline. A significant arm injury would obviously derail any plans to use the righty as a trade chip.

Under-The-Radar Star Can Shape Phillies Offseason

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In 2021 an NL East pitcher threw close to 100 innings, logged an ERA near 1.00, and received Cy Young votes for his pitching prowess. Elsewhere in the division, a pitcher threw over 100 innings, logged an ERA near 1.00, and remains relatively obscure. That first pitcher was Mets superstar Jacob deGrom. The second pitcher was lefty Ranger Suárez, and he may be the key to the Phillies’ offseason.

Coming into the season, Suárez was even more obscure than he is coming out of it. An international signing out of Venezuela in 2012, the left-handed Suárez climbed the ranks of the Phillies farm system to little fanfare. After reaching the Major Leagues as a 22-year-old in 2018, and in two ensuing stints in 2019 and an illness-interrupted 2020, Suárez did little to distinguish himself from the pack. Through 67 innings across those first three looks, the Phillies pitcher sported a 4.66 ERA that ERA estimators largely validated. The only standout skill in that modest sample was an ability to generate groundballs, as opposing hitters smacked pitches into the dirt 52.7% of the time when facing the young Philly.

In May of this past season, Suarez was called up from Triple-A Lehigh for what is likely the final time in his career, as he joined the bullpen to back up a top-heavy Philadelphia rotation. Pitching in mostly multi-inning appearances, Suarez didn’t yield an earned run until his twelfth appearance of the season. This roll continued, even if Suarez proved fallible and put up a 2.25 ERA in the next 20 innings until the trade deadline. This dominant run through July convinced the Phillies to promote the lefty into their rotation, replacing Spencer Howard, the starter Suarez regularly mopped up innings for, after a trade with the Texas Rangers.

As a starter, Suarez rode his hot streak to the end of the season, pitching to a 1.51 ERA in 65 plus innings, and securing Philadelphia’s 82nd win of the season. All told, the breakout left-hander pitched to a 1.36 ERA in 106 innings. A 2.72 FIP and 3.51 SIERA portend some regression, but above average command and strikeout abilities, plus a whopping 58.2% groundball rate, indicate that there was more than just luck at play in that final ERA. Additionally, Suárez was one of the best in the league at inducing soft contact per Statcast, whose metrics are even more bullish than those FIP or SIERA figures.

It’s rare for a season of this caliber to fly so under the radar come awards season, though Phillies advocates were likely a bit busy banging the Cy Young drum in favor of ace Zack Wheeler. For historical context though, a case could be made that the dual-role pitching Suarez was worthy of some down-ballot attention, if nothing else. After all, previous pure relievers Eric Gagne, Rollie Fingers, and former-Philly closer Steve Bedrosian all won the league’s top pitching award with comparable, and arguably inferior campaigns in the past. Award-winner Bryce Harper, who took home NL MVP honors in 2021, stumped for his teammate to win the NL Comeback Player of the Year award that ultimately went to Buster Posey. 

All of that’s to say, for as unheralded as he was, Ranger Suarez was very good in 2021. Per Fangraphs’ RosterResource page, the left-handed pitcher is expected to slot into a rotation behind Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, while Texas acquisitions Kyle Gibson and Hans Crouse round out the group. Rotation mainstay Zach Eflin, who flashed breakout potential the past two seasons before illness and knee troubles derailed his most recent campaign, should return early next season if he recovers as expected from September knee surgery.

Each member of that pitching squad carries some combination of health risk and questions about what they can reasonably produce in 2022: Wheeler pitched a career-high number of innings in 2021 after a shortened 2020 campaign; Nola sported an uncharacteristically high 4.63 ERA last season; Gibson’s bottom-line numbers nosedived following his trade to Philadelphia; Crouse has 270 professional innings to his name thanks to injuries, only 7 of which have come at the Major League level; Suárez is unlikely to post another ERA close to 1.00; and Eflin will be returning from surgery. 

One could look at these risks and determine that the Phillies need more depth, should anyone in this group fail to shoulder the bulk of a baseball season’s workload. A rosier stance however, is that the Phillies have one of the best rotations they’ve had in some time. Instead of relying on Vince Velasquez and a post-prime Jake Arrieta, or Matt Moore and Chase Anderson as they did this past year to fill a rotation, the Phillies front office may be looking to add that type of player entirely as depth. That is of course, unless President Dave Dombrowski and GM Sam Fuld see another opportunity for improvement. 

One creative tactic aimed towards improvement may be for the Phillies to shift Suarez back to the bullpen, at least once Eflin returns or more rotation depth is acquired. As surprising as that move would be on the surface, it would allow Suarez to continue in a dual-role that he’s already proved exceptional. Further, it would bolster a bullpen that finished near the back of the pack in most categories and tied for first in blown saves with 34. It would also equip manager Joe Girardi with a shutdown lefty out of the pen, as Suarez was the toughest pitcher for lefties to hit in 2021. This is in contrast to the bullpen’s current top left-hander, José Alvarado, who walked 47 batters in 55 plus innings last season. 

While the Phillies are currently $29MM under the current CBA’s luxury-tax threshold (per RosterResource’s Jason Martinez), it’s unlikely that they’ll devote a sum greater than the $10MM it took to sign right-hander Corey Knebel to further improve the bullpen. More modest bullpen additions aren’t off the table, as free agent lefty Andrew Chafin and neutral-splits right-hander Colin McHugh are speculative fits that can probably be had for a lower annual amount than Knebel. Regardless of target, however, no free agent addition will prove as cost-effective as shifting the pre-arbitration Suárez to the back of the bullpen.

The versatility afforded by Suárez should not stop the Phillies from reinforcing their rotation depth and bullpen, but it does lessen the need to sink major resources into both. This flexibility will allow the Phillies to turn the bulk of their attention to the position player side of things, an area for the team that hasn’t looked this bare in quite a few offseasons. Half of the lineup is set, but vacancies and question marks are abound in the other half, as left field, center field, third base, and shortstop are set to be filled with players short on Major League success or players coming off down 2020 seasons.

Phillies Place Four Players On COVID-19 Injured List

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4:03pm: These four players were indeed placed on the COVID-19 injured list, per Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). That does not necessarily mean that the players have tested positive for the virus; the list also houses players that have shown symptoms consistent with infection or that have had contact with someone else that is infected.

1:54pm: The Phillies appear to have placed four players on the 10-day injured list. While the team has yet to make a formal announcement, the MLB.com transactions page indicates that Scott Kingery, Hector Neris, Tommy Hunter and Ranger Suarez have all been placed on the IL. No reason was listed.

Given the lack of a formal announcement and the lack of specified injuries, there’s bound to be speculation about COVID-19 among these four players. The league has already made clear that teams will not be required to name players who go on the injured list for COVID-19 reasons. In a statement to ESPN’s Marly Rivera yesterday, MLB offered the following:

Because COVID-19 is not considered an employment-related injury, we will respect the privacy of the players who test positive or who are under evaluation, and we will defer to their wishes regarding public updates about their status. Without their voluntary permission, we will not disclose any COVID-19 related information.

It should be emphasized that a player does not need to test positive for the virus to be placed on the IL for COVID-19. Players exhibiting symptoms and those who have come into contact with people who’ve tested positive can also be placed on the IL for precautionary reasons. Once on the IL for a positive COVID-19 test or for symptoms/contact reasons, a player will need to twice test negative in order to be reinstated.

Additional context may eventually come to light, but for now we know that the Phillies have several key players sidelined until at least the end of next week (the IL placements are retroactive to June 30). Kingery is expected to fill an everyday role in the infield this year, although his superlative defensive skills would allow skipper Joe Girardi to plug him virtually anywhere on the diamond while providing solid glovework. Neris entered the season as the clear closer in Philadelphia, and the veteran Hunter would’ve filled a setup role. Suarez gave the Phils 48 2/3 frames of 3.14 ERA out of the bullpen last year and had positioned himself as an important member of the staff as well.

An extended absence for Kingery could conceivably open the door for top third base prospect Alec Bohm (with Jean Segura manning second base). Non-roster veterans like Neil Walker, Logan Forsythe and Josh Harrison are also in the Phillies’ 60-man player pool. Absent the three arms that were placed on the IL, an already injury-plagued bullpen would become even more problematic. It’s not clear who’d step into the ninth inning should Neris be unavailable, but the trio of Neris, Suarez and Hunter could all play vital late-inning roles in 2020, health permitting.

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