- - Red Sox's signing of Ranger Suárez adds a co-ace behind Garrett Crochet, marks a bold first move post-Bregman

Jordan ShustermanJanuary 15, 2026 at 1:47 AM

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At long last, the Boston Red Sox are on the board in free agency.

Just hours after Alex Bregman’s deal with the Chicago Cubs was made official, the Red Sox made their first major-league free-agent signing of the winter on Wednesday, agreeing to a five-year, $130 million deal with left-hander Ranger Suárez. Boston was the only MLB team that had yet to add to its big-league roster via free agency this winter, with its additions to this point (notably, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Johan Oviedo) all coming via trade. Suárez represents Boston’s biggest move yet — and a fascinating and unexpected pivot in the wake of losing Bregman.

Once Bregman bolted for Chicago, it was natural to speculate about how the Red Sox would attempt to replace his bat, despite a narrow selection of alternatives still available in free agency or via trade. But while the Red Sox have been linked to infielder Bo Bichette, reports indicated that Boston was contemplating leaning further into its pitching staff as its core strength, rather than trying to backfill Bregman’s impact on offense. It’s possible that Boston will still make an offensive addition to offset the loss of Bregman, but this agreement with Suárez suggests that a pitching-first strategy has indeed been activated. It’s also a sudden jolt in a starting pitching market that has largely laid dormant, and it could spark action involving the other top available arms, such as Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen.

At the outset of the offseason, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow was not shy about his intention to add impact starting pitching. “I don’t think we’re going to spend a ton of time trying to add a No. 4, a No. 5 starter,” he said at the GM meetings in November. “If we’re going to make a starting pitching addition, I think it should be somebody who can pitch at the front of a rotation … particularly someone that we feel like can pitch alongside or slot in behind Garrett [Crochet] and start a playoff game for us.”

A few weeks later, the Red Sox acquired veteran right-hander Sonny Gray from the Cardinals, a highly accomplished arm but not one who necessarily fit Breslow’s description. Gray proved to be effective during his St. Louis tenure, and his hefty $31 million salary is commensurate with that of a frontline arm, but as he enters his age-36 season, he projects more as a reliable mid-rotation option than someone you’d feel confident giving the ball to in October. A few weeks later, the Sox added Johan Oviedo from Pittsburgh to strengthen their rotation depth further, but once Boston turned its focus to retaining Bregman, any discussion about the rotation was largely put on the back burner.

Evidently, Bregman’s exit prompted an urgent reexamination of the pitching situation; it does not seem like an accident that this pivot to Suárez happened so quickly after Bregman departed. Was this the plan all along, based on the knowledge that Bregman might leave? Or was this strictly reactive to the situation in which Boston unexpectedly found itself? Either way, what matters now is that Suárez is Boston-bound, and his candidacy to be the co-ace behind Crochet is certainly compelling, if unusual in some respects.

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We don’t know whether Breslow had Suárez in mind when he mentioned wanting someone who “could start a playoff game” for the Red Sox, but it’s easy to envision the left-hander’s postseason track record standing out as an alluring feature of his résumé. His 1.48 ERA is the fourth-lowest in MLB history among pitchers who have made at least seven playoff starts with at least 40 total innings pitched, behind only Sandy Koufax, Christy Mathewson and Stephen Strasburg. And perhaps his most memorable October outing came in relief, when he closed out the 2022 NLCS to win the pennant for the Phillies, the only organization he has ever known, having signed as a teenager out of Venezuela back in 2012.

Suárez has excelled in the regular season as well. While he lacks the kind of workload typically associated with pitchers who have commanded nine-figure deals — particularly compared to the two best starters available this winter, Dylan Cease and Framber Valdez — Suárez has been reliably effective when on the mound: Over the past five seasons, he ranked 15th in fWAR despite ranking 38th in innings pitched, and his career-high workload came last year, when he threw 157⅓ frames across 26 starts. Recurring back injuries cost Suárez time in three of the past five seasons, which is something to monitor as he ages.

The stellar stats speak for themselves and paint a picture of a worthy new co-star atop the Boston rotation. The stuff, however, contrasts sharply to that of Suárez’s new rotationmate. Whereas Crochet is one of baseball’s hardest-throwing pitchers, Suárez’s average fastball velocity on both his four-seamer (91.3 mph) and sinker (90.1 mph) is among the lowest of any rotation arm in the league. And his velo has trended down recently, with his 2025 averages a couple ticks less than the 93 mph he averaged on both heaters from 2021 to 2023.

Viewed favorably, Suárez’s ability to rack up outs without premium velocity is a good sign of his advanced pitchability and the likelihood that he can maximize his repertoire as he ages. A more bearish outlook would stress the concern that if Suárez experiences any more of a significant velocity drop, he’s at risk of his fastballs becoming unplayable against the best hitters on the planet.

Velo aside, with plus command of a bevy of offerings beyond his two fastballs — a terrific changeup and curveball, plus a cutter — it’s no surprise that Suárez’s track record of run prevention is strong, and he thrives on inducing weak, ground-ball contact rather than racking up whiffs. In short, he’s a really good pitcher, even if the aesthetic of his arsenal pales in comparison to that of the average frontline arm in 2026.

With this addition, a new round of “now what?” questions will swirl around the Red Sox, specifically involving their position-player group that remains both imbalanced and incomplete. Failing to retain Bregman — their top target this winter and also a main character amid a tumultuous past year for the franchise — was an organizational failure by any measure. But with a resolution finally reached, even if it wasn’t the one they were hoping for, the Red Sox can move forward in their effort to construct a contending team in 2026. Suárez is a bold first move of the post-Bregman era, and more are likely to come.

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Source: “AOL Sports”