Eugenio Suárez is back in Seattle on Monday, and the timing could hardly be more familiar.
The Reds third baseman has been traded enough times to know how this part of July works. He’s already talked with his wife about the possibility of another move, even as he keeps saying the same thing out loud: Cincinnati is where he is right now, and that’s where his focus stays.
“We think we’re not getting traded,” Suárez said on Saturday, his 35th birthday. “That’s our main thought.
Don’t think about that, just try to play baseball. That’s my main thing right now.”
That answer fits the moment. Cincinnati brought Suárez back this offseason on a one-year deal, hoping the veteran bat and familiar face could help a young club take a step forward. Instead, with the Reds almost certainly headed toward sell mode before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Suárez sits in the middle of the usual deadline calculus: productive enough to matter, on an expiring contract, and exactly the kind of player contenders tend to chase.
And lately, he’s started to look like himself again.
Suárez homered in the final two games before the All-Star break, then added another in the first game after it. His 17-game on-base streak ended Saturday, but he opened a new one with a first-inning single in Cincinnati’s 9-6 win over the Rockies on Sunday.
The power has been there. So has the slow climb back into rhythm after a month lost to an oblique strain earlier in the season.
Since a two-hit game against the Brewers on June 24, the stretch that launched his on-base run, Suárez is hitting .235/.342/.515 with five homers and nine walks. He has struck out 33 times, which is part of the deal with Suárez.
So is the possibility that he can catch fire fast.
“When you start to see the ball better and you start making good decisions with your swings,” Suárez said. “You see the ball better, you feel better, you put yourself in a good position, the results are going to come at some point.”
That’s the version of Suárez teams know well. He can be streaky, he can whiff, and then he can turn a lineup over in a hurry. They also know something else: he tends to fit anywhere, and he tends to make the room better.
Friday night in Colorado was a good example. Suárez doubled in the fourth inning and got a hug at second base from Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, his teammate on Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic team.
“He’s the best,” Tovar said Sunday.
Tovar said Suárez made him feel comfortable right away, both on the field and as one of the younger players around the Venezuelan team.
The embrace meant a little more than a normal on-field moment, too. Venezuelan players have been carrying the weight of the earthquakes that killed thousands last month, and Suárez said he and Tovar checked in on each other’s families and made sure everyone was OK.
“That’s us - that’s how the Venezuelan people are,” Suárez said. “You hug your brother.
We are brothers. We love each other.
It was very nice to see him and give him a hug.”
Suárez has been watching the damage back home on social media, and he said it still hits hard. His family is safe, but he knows many others are not.
“Every time I watch videos … it still hurts my heart,” Suárez said. “I haven’t talked about this before, but as a Venezuelan, I feel so bad.
I feel my heart break. We have to continue to do our best to try to help our people.”
He said he has donated to relief efforts, and that teammates and the Reds’ front office have also contributed.
“That made me feel a lot better that I know of the support from my teammates, from the front office, from people that have never even thought of Venezuela,” Suárez said. “It’s something that’s made my heart feel good.”
So yes, a trade is still in play. Suárez knows that.
He’s lived it before, from Detroit to Cincinnati, from Cincinnati to Seattle, from Seattle to Arizona, and then back to Seattle last July before signing with the Reds this winter. He’s seen enough deadline chaos to understand the business side without letting it swallow the day.
“It’s hard not to think about it,” Suárez said. “It’s not my job to do something about it. My job is to come here every day, put this uniform on and do my best on the field.”
And for now, that uniform is still Cincinnati’s. His mother and sister still live in the city.
He says he feels the love there. He knows how this works.
He also knows it doesn’t have to be the end of the world.
“It’s not the end of the world,” said Suárez, whose mother and sister still live in Cincinnati. “I feel the love here.
I feel like I’m in a good spot. That’s how I feel.
But I also understand the business. We’ll see what the future brings.”
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