'Absolute stud' Suarez inks 3-year deal to become Braves' setup man

ATLANTA -- A few weeks after parting ways with two of their top relief options from the 2025 season, the Braves now find themselves with one of baseball’s best setup man/closer duos.

Robert Suarez further strengthened Atlanta’s bullpen on Thursday, when he signed a three-year, $45 million deal. The 34-year-old right-hander will serve as the setup man for closer Raisel Iglesias, who returned to the Braves with a one-year, $16 million deal in November.

“I had plenty of conversations with other teams,” Suarez said, “but at the end of the day, I just continued to hear so many good things about this [Braves] clubhouse, this team, this organization, the way they treat their players and the city of Atlanta itself. This was the right decision for me, and I couldn’t be happier. My family couldn’t be happier either.”

Suarez will make $13 million in 2026 and $16 million in both '27 and '28. The veteran reliever notched 36 saves for the Padres in 2024 and 40 more in '25. He could serve as Atlanta’s closer over the final two seasons of this contract.

But despite his recent success, he is content with entering the upcoming season as Iglesias’ setup man.

“I’m willing to do whatever needs to be done,” Suarez said. “I just want to help the team win in any which way. So I'm happy to do whatever the team needs.”

With the strong financial commitments made to Iglesias and Suarez, the Braves have significantly lessened the bullpen concerns that existed on Nov. 7, when they declined Pierce Johnson’s $7 million option and Tyler Kinley’s $5.5 million option. The thought was the money owed to those pitchers could be better allotted while reconstructing the bullpen.

Now that the Braves have signed two of this winter’s top three free-agent relievers, it seems they have indeed utilized their funds wisely.

Suarez’s signing was announced about 16 hours after the Braves revealed they signed backup outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, who competed against Suarez as a member of the Giants in National League West matchups over the past few years.

“He’s an absolute stud,” Yastrzemski said. “That was never a fun time when I saw him running in from the bullpen. It was one of those [situations], like, 'All right, I’ve got to grind here to find a way to put together a decent at-bat.' You never expect to do anything right off of him. He strikes fear into opposing hitters.”

After spending the first six seasons of his professional career in Mexico and Japan, Suarez was signed by the Padres in December 2021. The Venezuelan native made his Major League debut at age 31 the following April. Since then, he has been one of the best relievers in baseball, a subpar ’23 campaign notwithstanding.

Suarez has a career 2.91 ERA and has 77 saves over four Major League seasons. Over 12 postseason appearances, the hard-throwing right-hander has a 2.45 ERA with three saves. Suraez did not receive a qualifying offer from the Padres after the season, so there is no Draft-pick compensation attached to him, or penalty for signing him.

His repertoire consists mainly of a three-pitch mix -- a fastball, changeup and sinker. The best pitch in Suarez’s arsenal is the four-seamer, which averaged 98.6 mph last season and had a run value of +15. Opponents hit .155 against the pitch, which he threw 63.4% of the time. The fastball plays up with a higher perceived velocity thanks to Suarez’s 6-foot-8 extension, which ranked in the 81st percentile last season. The changeup played well off the fastball, producing a 32.8% whiff rate.

Suarez has trended in the right direction over the past couple of years in certain key categories. His 27.9% strikeout rate last season was his highest since 2022, and his 5.9% walk rate was the lowest of his career. His 2.88 FIP was also a career best in ’25, which marked his second consecutive All-Star campaign.