The Red Sox made their first free agent acquistion of the offseason Wednesday, agreeing with lefthander Ranger Suárez on a five-year, $130 million deal.
The former Phillies pitcher becomes the third starter the Red Sox have acquired this offseason after trades for Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo. Suárez, 30, might be the best of the bunch. He is coming off the best season of his career, as he set a new career best as a full-time starter with a 3.20 ERA, along with a career-high 157⅓ innings pitched.
While he won’t contribute to the offense, here are five things to know about the newest Red Sox pitcher.
Suárez pitches his best in big games
This fall, Dodgers righthander Yoshinobu Yamamoto had one of the most dominant postseason runs by a starting pitcher in recent memory, winning five of the six games he appeared in. The only pitcher to win a game against the Dodgers with Yamamoto on the mound this postseason was Suárez, who gave up one run in five innings as a bulk innings pitcher in NLDS Game 3.
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The postseason is where Suárez performs at his best. He is 4-1 with a 1.48 ERA in 11 playoff appearances (eight starts), and that includes five shutout innings in a win over the Astros in Game 3 of the 2022 World Series. That same year, the Phillies called Suárez out of the bullpen in Game 5 of the NLCS against the Padres with one out in the ninth and the winning run on first base. He got two outs on two pitches for his first postseason save to send the Phillies to the Fall Classic.
Since 1950, only three pitchers have pitched at least 40 postseason innings with a lower ERA than Suárez’s 1.48: Mariano Rivera (0.70), Sandy Koufax (0.95), and Stephen Strasburg (1.46).
Suárez’s success is thanks to pitch location, not velocity
Unlike Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suárez won’t light up the radar gun with his fastball. The lefty averaged just 90.5 miles per hour between his four-seamers and two-seamers last year, which was tied with Jose Quintana for the third-slowest among pitchers to throw at least 1,000 fastballs. The only two pitchers to average a slower fastball than Suárez last year — Kyle Hendricks (86.3 m.p.h.) and Andrew Heaney (89.9 m.p.h.) — have since retired.
But velocity has never been Suárez’s strength. And as his sinker’s velocity has dipped in each of the last two years, his ERA has improved both times.
At his best, Suárez is filling up the strike zone and generating weak contact thanks to his pinpoint location. He has a six-pitch mix and keeps hitters guessing, with his curveball, cutter, slider, and changeup all complementing his two fastballs depending on matchups. Last year, batters had a 31.2 percent hard-hit rate against Suárez — the lowest against any pitcher who allowed 250 or more batted balls. He won’t blow hitters away, but he will certainly get them out.
Suárez has had some back issues
While Suárez has avoided major injury throughout his career, he has three recorded stints on the IL with lower back issues — one in 2022, 2024, and 2025. His back stiffness last spring led to him missing the first month of the season, though he was terrific after a rocky season debut.
Suárez has never made 30 or more starts in a season, and he has never reached 160 innings in a regular season.
Suárez is tremendous in the field
While Suárez does not have a Gold Glove Award to show for it, he has been one of the best pitchers at fielding his position in recent years. Since the start of 2021, when Suárez first transitioned from the bullpen to the rotation, he leads all pitchers with 25 defensive runs saved.
The Red Sox have not had a pitcher win a Gold Glove Award since Mike Boddicker in 1990. Perhaps Suárez can change that trend.
Suárez is joining a new team for the first time since he was a teenager
Suárez, the son of a farmer in Venezuela, signed for $25,000 with the Phillies at age 16. That was one year after he first started pitching. But according to Matt Gelb in The Athletic, Philadelphia liked his athleticism and “loose arm,” so they taught him how to pitch. He didn’t leave the Phillies’ academy in Venezuela until his fourth season as a pro, but he quickly rose through the ranks as a crafty lefty once he did.
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He made his MLB debut in 2018 at age 22 as a reliever, and held that role into 2021 — even serving as a closer for a brief period. It wasn’t until 2021 when the Phillies tried him as a starter and discovered how effective he could be in that role. The Red Sox hope he can perform as well for them as he did for the Phillies.
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