Five Takeaways From the Red Sox’ Surprising Ranger Suárez Signing

After losing out on Alex Bregman, Boston finally lands a key free agent and adds to an already deep pitching staff.

New Red Sox pitcher Ranger Suárez owns a 3.25 ERA over the past five seasons, 10th-lowest among pitchers with at least 600 innings during that span. | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

The Red Sox finally signed a free agent, the last team to do so this winter. Having been turned down by Alex Bregman, they surprisingly pivoted not to another bat but to starting pitcher Ranger Suárez.

At five years and $130 million, it was a very good signing for Boston and a sad commentary on the state of starting pitching. Yes, both can be true. Suárez is an athletic pitch-maker with clean mechanics and a big-game pedigree. He also is 30 years old and just signed for $130 million without ever throwing 160 innings in a season.

His closest salary comp—though they are very different pitchers—is Tyler Glasnow, who signed a five-year, $136.5 million at age 30 without ever throwing more than 120 innings. Workhorses, they are not. Here are your need-to-know items about the signing:

1. Boston seems to be borrowing from the Dodgers’ model on starting pitchers: build in enough depth to withstand injuries and extra rest. Suárez slots in behind Garret Crochet and Sonny Gray to go along with Johan Oviedo, Brayan Bello, Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Patrick Sandoval, Kyle Harrison and Kutter Crawford. Six of those 10 hurlers are lefthanded. The franchise record for most starts by lefties in a season is 106 in 1951.

2. Defense is important to Suárez, who relies on moving the ball off the barrel more than he does strikeouts. The average exit velocity against him last year was 86.5 mph, a career low. Boston’s defense is about the same as what was behind him in Philadelphia: middle of the pack in terms of outs above average.

3. Suárez has an athletic, low-effort delivery that should hold up well in his 30s. He grew up as an outfielder in Pie de Cuesta, Venezuela. One day, when he was 15, the team’s pitcher didn’t show. Suarez took the ball and pitched a complete game.

The next year, the A’s, Yankees and Phillies scouted this athletic pitcher who threw 86 mph with a pure arm swing. In April 2012, when Suarez was 16, the Phillies signed him for $25,000. They kept him at their Venezuela academy for three years, while former big leaguer Les Straker showed him his sinker and became his mentor. In Suárez’s third season, 2014, at age 18, he became a legend in the Philadelphia minor league system because of this line: 78 strikeouts and 1 walk over 80.2 IP!

4. His cutter is a problem. Suárez started throwing the pitch in 2022. It’s not very good and he throws it too much, boosting it to a career high 17% use in 2025. Batters last year hit .303 and slugged .562 against the pitch (.585 by righthanders), right in line with the career marks against it (.298/.554).

The Red Sox love cutters. Only the Rangers threw a higher percentage of cutters last year. I’d rather see Suárez throw more curveballs than cutters, a reverse of last year.

5. Suárez is one cool cat and a postseason weapon. Pressure doesn’t bother him. He has a 1.48 ERA in 42 2/3 postseason innings. It’s the sixth best postseason ERA among all pitchers with 42 innings, trailing only Mariano Rivera, Sandy Koufax, Christy Mathewson, Eddie Plank and Stephen Strasburg. He can start, relieve or close in October. Last year, for instance, Phillies manager Rob Thomson used him as his bulk reliever behind Aaron Nola in a must-win NLDS Game 3.