Facing deadline uncertainty, Eugenio Suárez is focused on the one thing he can control — hitting

New York Times

3 days ago

DETROIT — This is how it has been for Eugenio Suárez over the past couple of weeks. Everyone wants to know what he is thinking. Everyone wants to know where he is going.
When you're at the center of MLB's trade deadline, uncertainty runs rampant.
Now, everyone wants to know if he's healthy.
'Always, I'm getting messages from somewhere, somebody,' Suárez said before Monday's game at Comerica Park. ''Where are you going?' I can't say anything because I don't know where I'm going. I don't know if I'm going, either, if I'm going to leave Arizona.'
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That was before the game.
A few hours later, in the ninth inning, Suárez took a 96 mph fastball from Tigers reliever Will Vest off his right index finger. Suárez reacted sharply, jumping, shaking his hand and briefly falling to his knees.
When a Diamondbacks trainer ran onto the field and began to examine Suárez's finger, he pulled his hand away. Suárez later said X-rays on the finger were negative. But there are more tests ahead, so add another layer to all the uncertainty.
'The pain was so bad,' Suárez said. 'It felt so painful right after the hit by pitch.'
Suárez — who was also hit in the left hand during the All-Star Game but avoided injury — exited the game, and a host of executives around the league were likely holding their breaths. Suárez is on an expiring contract. His team has a 51-56 record. He is perhaps the best bat available on the trade market. There is a long list of suitors — Mariners, Cubs, Astros, Phillies, Reds and more — reportedly coveting his powerful bat.
In his postgame press conference, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo had minimal information to offer.
'It was very tender to the touch,' Lovullo said. 'We all saw that his reaction wasn't great. He's getting X-rayed right now, and we'll hope for the best news possible. We'll call him day-to-day until we get more information.'
Twenty minutes after Lovullo spoke, Suárez finally entered Comerica Park's visiting clubhouse. He playfully poked a reporter. He said his fingernail had turned blue right after being hit. But he also held the swollen digit up for everyone to see, even bent it slightly.
'Right now, it's painful, obviously,' Suárez said. 'But the good news is the X-ray was negative. We'll see after tomorrow what else they're gonna do. But right now, I'll do my best to try to be back soon.'
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The trade deadline is Thursday, and up until then, the baseball world will be waiting for more information on Suárez's finger. The Diamondbacks have already traded first baseman Josh Naylor to the Mariners. More selling seems inevitable. The 34-year-old Suárez is in the middle of what could be the best season of his career. He has belted 36 home runs and entered Monday leading MLB with 87 RBIs.
Before the game, before the injury, Suárez had tried to surmise life in the eye of the rumor mill.
'Right now,' he said, 'my mind is fine. I've been praying a lot for calm and (to) stay focused on my job and not think about anything else.'
Suárez has been traded before, from the Tigers to the Reds, from the Reds to the Mariners, from the Mariners to the Diamondbacks. But all those trades came in the offseason.
'When you have a trade in the offseason, everything changes (but) you start from the beginning,' he said. 'Now, the middle of the season, you don't know where you're going, you don't know what's going to be your role or what's going to happen.'
I'm sorry that we let you down 😭 pic.twitter.com/PNQHM3MB0C
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Suárez made a point to say he values the Diamondbacks and his time in Arizona. Last week, the Diamondbacks dropped the final game of a homestand to the Houston Astros. Afterward, Suárez stood by himself, foot planted on the top step of the dugout. Suárez knew he was headed on the road, and there was a chance he would not return as a member of the Diamondbacks.
Like most athletes in his situation, he said he is trying — hard as it might be — to focus his thoughts elsewhere.
It's difficult, though, not to envision what it would be like if he got traded across the hall in the next two days. The Diamondbacks are in Detroit. The Tigers could be one of the teams in on Suárez. Acquiring him would give the Tigers a potent middle-of-the-order bat but also limit the unique versatility on which Detroit prides itself.
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Suárez signed with the Tigers as a teenager out of Venezuela. He came up through the Detroit system and made his debut in the Olde English D. He remembers Miguel Cabrera, Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez greeting him in the dugout after his first major-league hit, which was a home run. That was way back in 2014.
The Tigers traded him for Alfredo Simon later that winter.
'There's a lot of rumors about Detroit,' Suárez said. 'But I don't know. Like I said, I just think about trying to win games on (this) side of the clubhouse. … Obviously it's going to be weird because I don't want to face my own team.'
Everywhere he's been, Suárez has left behind a trail of positive reviews. He can be a gregarious personality. A shining light in a clubhouse. Even as he spoke to reporters before Monday's game, Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo chirped from the background: 'He's (not going) anywhere. I'm telling you guys. He don't go anywhere. … A hundred people for Geno? That's all right.'
Suárez has done and seen almost everything this game has to offer since he debuted as a young Tiger in 2014. But he has never played in a World Series. If he is traded, that will likely be the goal anywhere he ends up.
'I mean, obviously if you see my numbers, there's a lot of teams (that are) going to want my services,' Suárez said pregame. 'I don't take it for granted. I've been working so hard for this opportunity to be who I am right now, to be in the position that I am in right now.'
Suárez — if he's healthy and able to hit — could be the bat that puts somebody over the top.
In a way, that leads to a span of days with extreme stress.
In a way, it's exactly what Suárez has been working toward his whole career.