💥 BREAKING NEWS: A’s keep stacking depth as they lock in reliever Wander Suero in latest quiet overhaul ⚡.MH
Good morning A’s fans!
The pitching depth was tested early and often for the Athletics in 2025. Some of that is from asking young pitchers to exceed their innings limits, promoting arms that weren’t ready, injuries, poor performance, and just plain bad luck. The bullpen was especially tested as the club had to rely on constant shuttling back-and-forth for a lot of their relievers, especially post-Miller trade. That’s not something you want to constantly be doing with young relievers with bright futures.
Shoring that relief depth up seems to be the early focus for the front office this offseason. The team is in need of big league reinforcements and they’ll get there, but stockpiling on arms now will pay dividends during the longest stretches of next year. So far they’ve re-signed left-handers Ben Bowden and Matt Krook, both of whom were on the Athletics last year and made a few appearances for the big league team. They’ve also gone outside the organization and added righty relief option Geoff Hartlieb to serve as depth though he, like Bowden and Krook, doesn’t have much experience in the big leagues.
The team did however make a recent under-the-radar addition to their relief depth, one of the veteran variety. A pitcher with nearly 200 relief appearances and nearly 200 innings in the major leagues. That addition was former World Series Champion right-hander Wander Suero:
Now, it’s been years since Suero was an effective reliever at the big league level. He made his big league debut as a 26-year-old in 2018 with the Washington Nationals and impressed in 40 games as a rookie. He was then asked to pitch in a team-high 78 games as closer Sean Doolittle’s primary set-up man for that 2019 Championship squad, though he only made it into four playoff games during that run to their first World Series.
Suero then had an uneven 2020 season (who didn’t?) on a Nats team that went from World Champs to last place in the NL East, getting smacked around in August and then looking perfect in September. His fourth and ultimately final season in the nation’s capital went poorly. Though he made it into 45 games he also posted an unsightly 6.33 ERA, which ultimately led to getting DFA’d by Washington following the season.
The former undrafted free agent then bounced around for the next few years. He didn’t make it to the majors with the Angels in ‘22, then made just 11 appearances over the next three seasons between the Dodgers, Astros, and Braves last year. He hasn’t done himself any favors with the limited opportunities he’s gotten though, allowing 15 runs in just 14 1/3 big league frames over the past three years.
While it’s been a while since the now-34-year-old Suero had any sustained success in the major leagues, he’s continued posting solid numbers in Triple-A. Over the past three seasons in those teams’ systems he’s sporting a 2.90 ERA and averaging 52 appearances a year. He’s still a workhorse and showing he can get upper-level talent out when he’s pitching right. He looked especially good last year in Atlanta’s system (excluding a disaster stint with the Mets at the end of the season).
The A’s front office has been so focused on adding depth but now they’re adding an arm that has some actual experience under his belt. And as of right now there’s a fairly decent shot he could claim a roster spot with a strong spring performance. Suero is likely fifth or sixth on the depth chart as of this posting, though he could fall with a free agent signing later this winter or rise with a strong spring performance. We’ll have to see how the rest of the offseason shakes out though.
Suero is a fine and worthwhile addition but we’re all still waiting for that first big add to the relief corps. The unit came together well down the stretch this past season and has some intriguing arms but was a major reason why the Athletics had that 1-20 stretch that sunk any hopes of an exciting and fun long-shot bid for the playoffs. And that was with Mason Miller in the mix closing games. The club needs a new closer and then some more bridge guys to get to him. Maybe they have some of those guys already, but so far they’ve just been adding depth. Time to make an add that really moves the needle.
Have a great hump day everyone!
