Pitcher Andrew Suarez signs with the Yakult Swallows of the Japan Baseball League (NPB).
The left-hander signed with Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for the 2022 season, according to a club announcement.
It will be the first season in Japan for the southpaw, who spent the 2021 season with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization.
Suarez, 29, will head to Japan after an outstanding season at KBO.
The southpaw in 23 games (22 of them as a starter) and worked with a pristine 2.18 ERA and 2.72 FIP with an impressive 26.6% strikeout rate, a solid 8.7% walk rate, and a whopping 57.1% shot-out rate. in a total of 115 2/3 entries.
Given that success and his relative youth, Suarez won’t turn 30 until next September, it stands to reason that a strong season in Japan would go a long way toward putting him back on the major league map as a free agent.
After all, Suarez is just three seasons away from a pretty solid debut campaign with the 2018 Giants.
In that season, the 2015 second round racked up 160.1 innings with a 4.49 ERA with a strikeout rate of 19.5% that was below the league average, but a walkout rate of 6.8% and a groundout rate of 51.3. % that were considerably better than average. major league pitcher.
Despite that solid showing and some shaking at the back of San Francisco’s rotation in his sophomore season, Suárez was used almost exclusively as a reliever the following year in 2019.
Andrew’s 2021 campaign in Japan will be particularly worth monitoring for Major League clubs seeking help in the 2022 rotation.
Andrew Suarez Signs With NPB’s Yakult Swallows https://t.co/w0zmSeaAfT pic.twitter.com/0Je0VKLu5P
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) December 20, 2021
Author: Carlos Quijada
Twitter and Instagram: @abogado_quijada
