The Cincinnati Reds officially announced a one-year free-agent deal with third baseman Eugenio Suarez on Tuesday, with a mutual option for 2027.
ESPN reported the deal is worth $15 million to bring Suarez back to Cincinnati, where he played seven seasons from 2015-21 and was an All-Star in 2018.
“It’s perfect, that’s why I’m here,” Suarez said in his reintroduction press conference Monday. “Everything right now is perfect, beautiful, happy. I’m very excited to be back home.”
In a corresponding move, catcher Ben Rortvedt was designated for assignment.
Suarez, 34, started last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks before he was traded to the Seattle Mariners and helped them make their fourth American League Championship Series appearance in franchise history.
Of Suarez’s 325 career home runs, 189 were hit with the Reds, including three of his six 30-homer seasons.
Suarez hit .228 in 159 games last season. He had a career-high 118 RBIs and tied his career high with 49 home runs — fifth most in the major leagues.
Suarez is a .246 hitter over 1,630 regular-season games with 949 RBIs, a .328 on-base percentage, a .464 slugging percentage and 1,814 strikeouts against 632 walks.
Rortvedt was claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers in November. He was a late-season contributor in Los Angeles’ run to a second consecutive World Series title and was the backup to Will Smith on the postseason roster.
Rortvedt, 28, started the first four games of the Dodgers’ playoff run, all victories, before Smith returned full time from a hand injury and played the remaining innings of the postseason. Rortvedt was 3-for-7 in the playoffs with an RBI.
In 138 career games over four seasons with four different teams, Rortvedt is a career .190 hitter with nine home runs and 52 RBIs.
