ANAHEIM -- It was perhaps fitting irony on Saturday night when the Angels’ signature outfield fire celebration erupted after D-backs slugger Eugenio Suárez blasted his second home run of the night.
The crowd booed at the obvious misfire. But it was a notable tease after Suárez’s 31st home run, which propelled him into fourth place in MLB, behind only Cal Raleigh (38), Aaron Judge (35) and Shohei Ohtani (32). Despite Suárez’s prolific resume as a power hitter -- this is his sixth 30-homer season, and his 20th career multi-homer game -- he will not be a contestant in Monday’s Home Run Derby.
The Diamondbacks are confused.
“I normally don’t do this stuff, but I went and looked at some of the stats, and I thought he had a couple of opportunities to make a run at being one of those that was chosen,” said manager Torey Lovullo. “For whatever reason, he wasn’t. I don’t know what that process is like, I don’t know what the circumstances are that’s built around the reasons why and why not. ... I’m sure there’s a good reason for it. Whatever it is, I don’t know, but he deserves to be there.”
Suárez earned his second career All-Star selection, and when asked recently by reporters, said he would have accepted an invitation to the Derby.
“I’m not going to tell everybody that I want to do it; I would prefer they ask me for it,” Suárez said. “I’m not the guy who is going to push for it. It’s OK if I’m not participating. Being in the All-Star Game, for me, already means a lot.”
While Suárez was being diplomatic, his fellow D-backs did not hide their disappointment.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a bummer,” said pitcher Zac Gallen. “When you get a guy who asked to be in it, I don’t know what goes into that decision from the league – who makes those decisions. You get guys who are put in there that might not put on as good of a Home Run Derby show as Geno would.
“Especially for us. We see his BP almost every day—a little bit unfortunate, a little bit kind of puzzling. Like I said, I don’t know what goes into those decisions. Hopefully, if another guy backs out, they get Geno in there, but we’ll see what happens.”
Arizona has now lost or split five straight series, and the frustration in the clubhouse is palpable. There’s also a recognition that with the July 31 Trade Deadline approaching, time is running out for the D-backs to convince general manager Mike Hazen to buy rather than sell.
“It’s hard to process,” said Lovullo. “I don’t know a lot of what [Hazen] is thinking, I don’t want to know. It’s his job, and he does a great job at it. But I want to make it easy for him, and we’re not.”
Several D-backs, including Suárez, Gallen, and Sunday’s starter, Merrill Kelly, have been floated as possible trade candidates if the team decides to sell.
“It is what it is, it’s part of the business,” said Gallen, whose ERA rose to 5.40 after a six-run outing. “When we’re at the spot we’re in, the sharks start circling, just like any team. ... We’ll see what happens, but I’m just trying to execute pitches for the D-backs at this point in time. If it happens, it happens, but hopefully we play a little bit better baseball and that’s not the case in the next two and a half weeks.”
Baseball is a game of controlling what you can. While the D-backs know they can sway Hazen one way or another with their performance on the field, when it comes to the Derby, there’s a sense that Suárez couldn’t have done much more.
“He was open to going to the Derby. I don’t get it,” said shortstop Geraldo Perdomo. “I know it’s a popularity contest, but I don’t know when you’ve got a guy who is open to going and he has 20-something bombs, why they don’t call him? I don’t know how that works.
“I feel like everybody in here is upset because he deserves to be there and he wants to be there.”