As they prepare to face another team trying to bounce back from a rough start, the Philadelphia Phillies also have to get ready for a reunion with an old friend: Ranger Suárez.
The star left-hander departed the only franchise he had ever known during the past offseason, trading Philadelphia for the greener (Monster) pastures of Boston. He signed a five-year, $130 million deal with the Red Sox, setting himself up as the Robin to Garret Crochet’s Batman for the next phase of his career.
So far, he’s lived up to that role, posting a 2.77 ERA over seven starts and 39 innings for his new club. As has often been the case, injuries have slowed both him and the Red Sox at times, but whenever he takes the mound, Suárez remains as unshakable as ever.
When the Phillies visit Fenway Park this week, they’ll face Suárez as an opponent for the first time in the series finale. But just because he’s now pitching elsewhere doesn’t mean his old teammates have stopped caring for the 30-year-old southpaw.
Ranger Suárez deserves all the affection coming his way from Phillies fans and ex-teammates
“I miss him,” longtime Phillies reliever José Alvarado told NBC Sports about his close friend Suárez. “He did a lot of great things for our team. That’s why he means so much to us.”
Suárez’s legacy in Philadelphia is already assured, thanks to an impressive postseason résumé that includes a combined 1.48 ERA across four different playoff runs. His most iconic moment came when he recorded the final out of the 2022 NLCS, but throughout this core’s championship window, he remained as poised as any pitcher the Phillies had in October.
His calm, collected demeanor on the mound never wavered, no matter how high the stakes. Expect the same when he faces his old team on May 14 even if he has to work a little harder to keep his adrenaline in check.
As luck would have it, the Phillies will counter with Jesús Luzardo, who signed a contract eerily similar to Suárez’s free-agent deal (five years, $135 million). Neither pitcher is currently at the absolute top of their game, but both lefties have already turned in some vintage performances. A pitcher’s duel between the two would be a kind of poetic baseball justice and, given how both offenses have struggled, a pretty likely outcome.
But just in case you’re worried the Phillies might go easy on an old fan favorite, Alvarado made the message crystal clear before the series: “But this is business. He’s going to try to beat us, and we’re going to try to beat him.”
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