The Orioles announced this morning that they’ve placed right-hander Albert Suarez on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. To replace Suarez on the active roster, the club selected the contract of right-hander Matt Bowman. There was already a vacancy on the club’s 40-man roster, so an additional corresponding move for Bowman was not necessary.
Suarez, 35, signed with the Rays out of Venezuela and made his pro debut all the way back in 2008 but didn’t make his big league debut until 2016 with the Giants. The right-hander pitched to a pedestrian 4.51 ERA with a 4.40 FIP across two seasons and 115 2/3 frames in San Francisco before being outrighted off the clubs roster. He was then selected by the Diamondbacks in the Rule 5 draft but was outrighted to the minors once again without making an appearance during the 2018 campaign.
That led Suarez to try his hand overseas, and he ultimately spent five seasons pitching in Asia between Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yakult Swallows and the Korea Baseball Organization’s Samsung Lions. After posting ERAs of 3.00 and 3.04 respectively in those leagues, Suarez finally got the opportunity to return to the big leagues with the Orioles in 2024, and he made the most of the opportunity. The righty served as a valuable swing man for Baltimore last year, pitching 133 2/3 innings between 24 starts and eight relief appearances. The results were solid, with a league-average 3.70 ERA and a 4.24 FIP.
It was more than enough for Suarez to earn a spot on the club headed into 2025, though he ultimately lost out on the fifth starter job this spring when the nod was given to young southpaw Cade Povich instead. In 2 2/3 innings of work so far this year, Suarez has allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits and no walks while striking out two. It’s a solid enough performance, though a dip in his velocity was a cause for some concern. Evidently, that was a sign of injury, as now Suarez will be out for at least the next couple of weeks. A more firm timetable for Suarez’s return to action figures to be made clear in the coming days.
Replacing Suarez on the club’s roster for the time being is Bowman. A 13th-round pick by the Mets back in 2012, the right-hander got semi-regular work in the majors as a reliever from 2016 to 2019 with the Cardinals and Reds. During that time, he pitched to a solid 4.02 ERA (105 ERA+) with a 3.67 FIP in 181 1/3 innings of work, striking out 19.3% of opponents along the way. He did not pitch in the major or minor leagues from 2020 to 2022 due to the cancelled minor league season in 2020 and subsequent Tommy John surgery, then made it back to the big leagues for three innings of work with the Yankees in 2023. The righty resurfaced more fully in 2024 and posted a roughly league average 4.40 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work split between the Twins, Diamondbacks, Mariners, and Orioles. The majority of that time was spent in Baltimore, for whom he posted a 3.45 ERA and a 4.19 FIP in 15 2/3 innings of work.