The Oakland Athletics’ offseason continues to be a quiet but calculated march through the minor-league free agent market, and their latest addition is a familiar archetype: a veteran reliever with flashes of brilliance buried beneath recent volatility. Enter Wander Suero, a 34-year-old right-hander who has seen the major leagues in seven of the past eight seasons, and whose most recent act includes brief stints with the Braves, Mets, and Astros.
A Rocky Road with the Braves
While his recent major league performance paints a stark picture, 6 1/3 innings with a 13.50 ERA in 2023, followed by a single-game cameo with the Astros in 2024 that ended in walk-off fashion, there’s more to Suero than that surface line suggests. The Athletics aren’t betting on name recognition or past success at the big-league level. They’re looking deeper.
Triple-A Dominance Hints at Untapped Value
In Triple-A with the Braves last season, Suero was nothing short of dominant. Across 43 appearances, he posted a 1.35 ERA and 2.62 FIP in 46 2/3 innings, while striking out over 31% of batters and limiting walks to under 7%. Those are elite numbers, the kind that get you second and third looks from organizations with deep pitching insight.
Still, those same organizations ultimately let him walk. His most extended big-league look during that span? Eight innings with the Dodgers. It’s clear that while he’s passed multiple evaluations, he hasn’t sustained enough performance, or perhaps consistency, to justify a longer leash at the MLB level.
Fit and Risk in the A’s Bullpen Puzzle
His arsenal remains intriguing. A 92 mph cutter anchors his pitch mix, complemented primarily by a changeup and the occasional curve. Yet questions remain about his profile: he’s not a ground ball pitcher, he’s prone to the long ball, and that’s a dangerous combination in the Pacific Coast League, particularly at the Athletics’ Triple-A home in West Sacramento.
Still, this is exactly the kind of move teams like the A’s make. Suero is low-cost, low-risk, and potentially high-reward. In a season that will likely once again require bullpen innings from unexpected sources, a veteran with strikeout stuff and recent success at Triple-A could quickly become relevant, especially if the roster is stretched thin or the team runs into another spiral like last year’s 1-20 stretch.
Suero may not be a game-changer, but in a landscape where bullpen depth is gold and performance can swing wildly over small samples, the Athletics are keeping their options open, and that’s exactly what this signing represents.
