Why is Diamondbacks' Eugenio Suarez struggling at the plate?
The pitch was one that Eugenio Suarez has spent the past decade hitting over fences all around this country. Fastball, middle of the plate, just above the knees. He unleashed a good swing, sending it flying out towards center field at Camden Yards. Then, it died there, falling harmlessly into the glove of Cedric Mullins as he jogged onto the warning track.
It was just one pitch and one at-bat in a forgettable loss, but it was also more than that. For the past decade, Suarez has been a feared slugger. Since his 2014 debut, he ranks 15th in home runs. This year, he has just three, which highlights a frustrating offensive season. And it’s largely because he’s been missing pitches like the one against the Orioles.
Before this year, he was hitting .340 with a .606 slugging percentage against fastballs in the middle and bottom of the strike zone. Against those pitches, he turned into Aaron Judge. This year, on those same pitches, he’s hitting .250 with a .406 slugging percentage. That’s less Aaron Judge, more Leody Taveras.
Largely because of that gap, Suarez's overall batting line is just .220/.291/.333. All three numbers would be his lowest marks in a full season.
The issue in recent years was that, even as Suarez destroyed low fastballs, pitchers began to attack him in a different way. In his past two seasons in Seattle, they hammered him with fastballs at the top of the strike zone, above his sweet spot. He had no answer. He whiffed on those pitches nearly 40% of the time and led the American League in strikeouts both years.
In spring training, after he was traded to the Diamondbacks, Suarez went to Arizona’s coaching staff with a directive: Help me improve on fastballs at the top of the strike zone.
“As a hitter, everybody's got holes and I try to cover all the stuff and be better every day,” Suarez said. “That's more important to me. Be better and be open-minded and use all the stats that we have now.”
The tweaks — which are mostly approach-based, not mechanical — have worked. Suarez has proven less susceptible to high fastballs. His strikeout rate is down.
The trade-off, though, has been severe.
“He's probably looking up a little more where traditionally his damage is middle, lower half,” hitting coach Joe Mather said. “… That focus may take away a little bit from that lower half because his sights are up a little bit more.”
In spring training, this was a concern of Suarez’s.
“I talked to Joe,” Suarez said. “Like, ‘Hey, do you think if I focus on the high pitch, I'm gonna lose my power over here?’”
The Diamondbacks coaching staff assured him that he had the ability to marry the two. Months later, both Mather and Suarez are still confident that he’s close to finding the right balance. Over the past week, he’s been better offensively, hitting .241 with a .727 OPS. But it hasn’t all come together like either side envisioned.
There is, at least to the outside eye, another issue here, too. Suarez’s raw bat speed is down, hovering around league average where it was once well above average.
None of this is news to Suarez. Last year, the Mariners told him that his bat speed was down at the end of the season, a message that he relayed to the Diamondbacks after the trade. For the early part of the year, Arizona’s hitting staff monitored that number. But even though it was down from previous seasons, they felt comfortable with it.
“Basically what we look at is, we're looking at a threshold,” Mather said.
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Suarez was over that threshold, leading the staff to believe his focus would be better spent elsewhere — namely on approach.
Even as his overall offense is down, there have been some ancillary benefits. He’s hitting .357 with runners in scoring position and is among the Diamondbacks’ RBI leaders with 23. He’s also done better from pitchers’ counts, in part because of the lower strikeout numbers.
All of this pleases Suarez, who has become a hitting obsessive over his career, using the type of data that wasn’t available when he reached the majors a decade ago. Mather also highlighted his intelligence, noting that the coaching staff can have different types of conversations with Suarez than they do with many hitters.
That gives the Diamondbacks confidence a breakout can still arrive for their third baseman. Because the clutch numbers and lower strikeout totals are great, but this is a slugger. A player whom general manager Mike Hazen highlighted for his “power element” after the November trade. At the time, it was an obvious statement. Suarez had hit 246 career home runs, including 31 just two years ago.
The Diamondbacks and their inconsistent offense need that power. So far, it hasn’t arrived.
Friday’s Diamondbacks-Tigers pitching matchup
Tigers at Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m., Cox, Ch. 34
Diamondbacks RHP Ryne Nelson (2-2, 5.33) vs. Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal (5-0, 2.02).
At Chase Field: Nelson gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Orioles on Friday in Baltimore. In two starts since returning from the injured list, he has given up seven earned runs in 9 2/3 innings, collecting only 11 swinging strikes. … Opposing hitters own a .343/.371/.565 line off him this season. … Nelson faced the Tigers last year, firing 5 2/3 scoreless innings with two walks and four strikeouts. … Skubal, who grew up in Kingman, Ariz., is in the conversation for the best pitcher in baseball at the moment. He has the lowest WHIP (0.857) in the league, a tiny walk rate (1.5 per nine innings) and has 60 strikeouts in 49 innings. … He averages 96.4 mph with his fastball, gets whiffs at a 47.5 percent rate on his change-up and also throws a slider and an occasional curveball. … He has never faced the Diamondbacks.
Coming up
Saturday: At Chase Field, 5:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zac Gallen (5-2, 2.86) vs. Tigers RHP Jack Flaherty (0-3, 3.88).
Sunday: At Chase Field, 1:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Jordan Montgomery (2-2, 4.76) vs. Tigers RHP Matt Manning (0-1, 4.37).
Monday: At Los Angeles, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Slade Cecconi (1-3, 4.76) vs. Dodgers RHP Gavin Stone (4-1, 3.21).
What to know about the Detroit Tigers
Coming off a 78-84 season last year, the Tigers were hoping a youth movement would help boost them to their first winning season since 2016. As of a couple of weeks ago, it looked like they might be on that path as they won 18 of their first 31 games. But the Tigers have gone just 3-9 in their past 12 games, losing consecutive series to the Yankees, Guardians, Astros and Marlins to fall under .500, at 21-22, for the first time this season. Their lack of run production has been the biggest issue; they rank 12th in the American League in runs scored and are near the bottom with a .225/.297/.358 line as a team. LF Riley Greene might be in the midst of a breakout; he leads the team with nine homers and has a .824 OPS. RF Kerry Carpenter also has swung the bat well, hitting .271/.326/.500. But most everyone else has struggled, including highly regarded prospect 2B Colt Keith, who is at just .171/.234/.197 through 117 at-bats. 1B Spencer Torkelson, the former Arizona State standout, also has started slow; he hit his first two home runs of the season just this week. The Tigers’ pitching has been very good, ranking fourth in the league with a 3.33 ERA. LHP Tarik Skubal (2.02 ERA) and RHP Reese Olson (2.09 ERA) have been outstanding, and RHP Jack Flaherty is throwing as effectively as he has in years, posting a 3.88 ERA with 63 strikeouts in 48 2/3 innings. RHP Jason Foley has 10 saves in 11 chances.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What's causing Eugenio Suarez's early struggles for Diamondbacks?
