The Athletics reached agreement with veteran reliever Wander Suero on a minor league contract, per the MLB.com transaction log. He’ll presumably get a non-roster invite to big league Spring Training.
Suero, 34, pitched in five MLB games with the Braves this past season. He also had a pair of stints on the Mets active roster late in the year but never made it into a game. Suero was hit hard in his limited look with Atlanta, allowing eight runs across 6 1/3 innings. He had a much better showing in Triple-A between the two organizations, combining for 48 2/3 frames of 1.29 ERA ball. Suero struck out 32.5% of opponents against a 6.6% walk rate in that excellent year against minor league hitters.
A solid middle reliever earlier in his career, Suero won a World Series with the 2019 Nationals. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA in two of his first three seasons in Washington but has been in journeyman territory for a few years. Suero has gotten to the big leagues in each of the past three seasons, totaling a cumulative 11 appearances between the Dodgers, Astros and Braves. He has never had huge velocity, instead relying on a 92-93 MPH cutter as his primary pitch.
The A’s have added a few relievers on non-roster deals within the first couple weeks of the offseason. Suero joins Nick Anderson, Geoff Hartlieb, Matt Krook and Ben Bowden as minor league acquisitions. The A’s don’t have a single reliever on the 40-man roster with even two years of MLB service. They’re likely to add one or two MLB relievers this offseason and are clearly trying to stockpile non-roster depth in a hitter-friendly setting at Triple-A Las Vegas.
