PHOENIX — The Seattle Mariners, who made the painful mistake of trading third baseman Eugenio Suarez two years ago to the Arizona Diamondbacks only to watch him become one of the game’s premier power hitters, swallowed their pride Wednesday night and traded for him back.
Suarez, who has 36 homers and 87 RBIs, becomes the first player in baseball history to hit at least 35 homers before he was traded in-season.
“Super excited, it’s a great move,’’ Mariners MVP candidate Cal Raleigh told reporters after their game Wednesday night. “He’s pretty much everything you look for in a teammate. He’s supportive. Super nice. Keeps it light in the room. Always positive. And you add on to that, he’s a great player.
“We saw that when he was here the first time, and we were obviously all sad that he left, but we’re happy that he’s coming back …. Very, very excited for it. Obviously, we know how great a guy he is, how great he’s playing this year. Great, great add.”
It was the second deal the Mariners and Diamondbacks made in a week with the D-backs also trading first baseman Josh Naylor to Seattle for two pitching prospects. Now, they sent his corner infield teammate to provide the Mariners much-needed power to reach the postseason for only the second time since 2001 after near-misses the last two years.
The Mariners, fortunate that the market for Suarez never materialized the way the Diamondbacks envisioned, were able to pull off the deal without touching any of their prized prospects. The cost was first baseman Tyler Locklear, their ninth-best prospect, who leads all Triple-A hitters with 16 homers and 56 RBIs since June 1; and minor-league pitchers Hunter Cranton and Juan Burgos, their 16th- and 17th-ranked prospects, respectively.
Just like that, they now have a team built to win their first World Series championship in franchise history.
The Mariners (57-52) are five games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West, and are tied with the Texas Rangers for the third and final wild-card berth. Yet, with their star-studded rotation of Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, George Kirby, Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller, they can scare the living daylights out of any team in the postseason.
And now, they finally have the power they have long coveted, with Suarez hitting 53 home runs over the past year, trailing only Shohei Ohtani (60 homers) and Aaron Judge (58). Raleigh (41 homers) and Suarez (36) make the Mariners the second team in MLB history to enter August with at least two players having at least 35 homers, joining the 1961 Yankees who had Roger Maris (40) and Mickey Mantle (39).
The Mariners now have one of the deepest and most-talented lineups in the American League, rectifying the blunder they made two years ago when they traded Suarez.
The Mariners thought his career was in a steep decline after the 2023 season, which saw him hit .232 with 22 homers, 96 RBIs and a league-leading 214 strikeouts. The Mariners sent him to Arizona, receiving only minor-league reliever Carlos Vargas and backup catcher Seby Zavala, while saving about $11 million in salary.
It looked like a shrewd move when Suarez was struggling so badly — hitting just .193 — that the Diamondbacks considered designating him for assignment in late June 2024. He instead caught fire, hitting .307 with 20 homers and a .942 OPS in the second half, and never cooled off.
Now, all the Mariners need is for Suarez to stay hot for three more months, their starting pitching to stay healthy, maybe grab one more late-inning reliever by Thursday’s trade deadline, and take the franchise on a magical ride to its first World Series.
It has been a long time coming, but now the Mariners have the lineup, the pitching, and the burning desire to pull it off.
They’ve saved prized prospects long enough.
Now, it’s time for a parade.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eugenio Suarez trade impact: Can Mariners make World Series?
