The White Sox have an opportunity to add one of baseball’s most prolific power hitters after the Reds placed Eugenio Suárez on outright waivers.
The next few days could provide an opportunity for Major League Baseball's contending teams to add more talent for the home stretch of the 2026 regular season.
It's often right at the end of August that we see players begin to be placed on waivers by teams falling out of contention.
The hope for players on expiring contracts who are set to become free agents is that they get picked up by a contender and join the active roster before the start of September, therefore becoming eligible for the postseason. The hope for the team waiving them is to get some money off the books and save on salary.
And of course, if you're a team like the Chicago White Sox, currently sitting in first place in your division with hopes of improving the MLB roster for the final month of the year, it's about adding talent and getting better.
We saw our first significant waiver move across MLB on Wednesday night, and it could present the White Sox with an opportunity to add a two time All Star and one of the best power hitters of the last decade.
The Cincinnati Reds officially placed infielder Eugenio Suárez on outright waivers.
Eugenio Suárez Gets Waived
Suárez, who spent the majority of his career with the Reds from 2015 through 2021, returned to Cincinnati in 2026 on a one year, $15 million contract after hitting 49 home runs in 2025 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners. It was the second 49 home run season of his career, with the other coming in Cincinnati back in 2019.
Suárez has hit 280 home runs since the start of the 2018 season, the sixth most in baseball. That's more than players like Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, and Rafael Devers.
It goes without saying that Suárez isn't the same player we saw with the Arizona Diamondbacks at the start of 2025. He hit 36 home runs in 106 games with Arizona and posted a .897 OPS, but that OPS dropped to .682 over his final 53 games with the Mariners at the end of the year.
Still, he has 19 home runs, 57 RBIs, and a .705 OPS in 2026. He's still a power threat, and his fairly balanced splits against right-handed and left-handed pitching this year make him an intriguing candidate as a bench bat.
He also comes with a .982 career OPS at Rate Field and plenty of postseason experience. Suárez hit some big home runs in the playoffs last year for the Mariners, including a two home run, five RBI effort that featured a go-ahead grand slam in Game 5 of the ALCS.
White Sox Could Upgrade From Acuna
With roster expansion approaching, the White Sox could choose to make some additional room for Suárez, who would only be owed around $3 million for the remainder of the 2026 season.
Even if pitching is the priority with September call ups, I'll sound like a broken record in saying that Luisangel Acuña is a redundancy for the White Sox at this point and someone who could be cut from the roster. T
he things Acuña does well, particularly his baserunning, are less essential with Brenton Doyle on the roster, and his defensive versatility in the infield can be replaced by moving Sam Antonacci around.
What role would Acuña have on a playoff roster besides being a late game pinch runner? And is that really worth keeping around over one of the best power hitters of the last 10 years, especially one with playoff experience?
I won't say this is make or break for the White Sox, but it's certainly an opportunity. And I'm not even as married to Suárez as I am to the idea of adding talent through waivers over the next few days. I'd expect more veteran pieces to become available, and each of those pieces would likely bring something to the table that could make the White Sox a better team.
That should be the one and only priority for Chris Getz and the front office moving forward, with 29 games remaining and a 2.5 game lead in the AL Central.
