The San Diego Padres continue to lose pitchers left and right, with the latest being closer Robert Suarez. Former ace Dylan Cease is already gone via a long-term deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, and on Thursday former Padres closer Robert Suarez signed a three-year, $45 million deal with the Atlanta Braves.
The assumption going into the winter meetings was that the Padres would punt on both of their free agent starters, although right-hander Michael King remains available in free agency for now.
It was shocking to see San Diego let Suarez get away, however, given that the Padres did a lot of the development work with Suarez, giving him his first big league contract in 2021 after Suarez excelled pitching in Japan.
There are justifications for letting him go, however. Suarez will be 35 on Opening Day, and while he still throws hard and had excellent basic metrics, there were some underlying indicators that this might not be a bad move.
Suarez’s lack of a breaking ball can make some of his saves an adventure, and according to Dennis Lin of The Athletic, the reliever’s fastball-happy ways might have been responsible in part for the elbow inflammation that cost the reliever much of the 2023 season.
More relevant is the fact that Suarez has ranked below average in whiff rate in all of his big league seasons, although his fastball is considered “heavy” and difficult to barrel up. Suarez also allowed a career-worst 42.6 percent hard-hit rate in 2025, according to Lin.
Losing Suarez opens a big hole in the Padres bullpen, although they do have the bodies to fill it. In theory, reliever Jason Adam could step up and close game, although he’s coming off a quad injury that cost him serious time this season.
Reliever Mason Miller is another hypothetical candidate, as is fellow reliever Adrian Morejon. Both pitchers were rumored to be conversion targets to fill in the gaps in the starting rotation, but either could go in the opposite direction and finish off games.
But doing that would weaken the Padres bullpen, which is one of the team’s major strengths. Both GM A.J. Preller and new manager Craig Stammen are on record as saying they don’t want to do this, but the Padres basically did nothing at the winter meetings beyond making a couple of minor moves.
Preller’s sole verbal contribution involved comments that right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was untouchable, more or less. But no one really knows what’s behind the Padres’ lack of activity so far this offseason after the sudden resignation of former manager Mike Shildt and the announcement that the team is being put up for sale.