Philadelphia Phillies: Should Ranger Suarez be in the starting rotation?
By David Esser
Life has not been easy for Philadelphia Phillies LHP Ranger Suarez over the past year or so.
After earning a permanent spot in the team’s bullpen during the latter stages of the 2019 season, Suarez saw his 2020 campaign absolutely torn to shreds by COVID-19. The Venezuelan born southpaw missed a majority of the shortened season due to his own personal battle with the virus, forced to wait until September before making his first appearance with the team.
In the brief action that Suarez did see with the Phillies in ’20, he was noticeably not the same pitcher who recorded a 3.14 ERA back in ’19. He allowed nine runs to score in just 4.0 innings of work, really struggling with both his command and his overall velocity.
Suarez experienced some more issues heading into the offseason, as he was unable to show up to Spring Training on time due to pandemic induced travel restrictions. This seriously worsened Suarez’ chances of beginning the year on the main roster, as the additions of Matt Moore and Chase Anderson both began the season ahead of him in the pecking order.
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Should Ranger Suarez be in the Philadelphia Phillies starting rotation?
However, with Suarez now fully ramped up and ready to throw on a more consistent basis, and Moore and Anderson on the brink of being DFA’d, we are once again seeing a version of Suarez who should be able to stick around in the Phillies clubhouse.
Suarez has already pitched 12.0 scoreless innings this season across seven outings, posting 11 strikeouts and an extremely impressive 0.67 WHIP.
With concerns still hovering over the Philadelphia Phillies overall pitching depth, the question now emerges:
Should Ranger Suarez be in the team’s starting rotation?