Division rival Reds make Brewers’ top 2025 trade deadline target available on waivers

Just 13 months ago, it would have cost the Milwaukee Brewers an arm and a leg to land slugging third baseman Eugenio Suárez from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, the Brewers, and any team in baseball for that matter, could have Suárez essentially for free. As reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Cincinnati Reds have placed the 35-year-old Suárez on waivers, freeing him up to be claimed by any team willing to pay the remaining $2.5 million of his 2026 salary.

Obviously, a lot has changed for Suárez in one year. Suárez was among home run and RBI leaders in the league at the time of the trade deadline last year, and in a market that was starved of power bats, he immediately became Brewers fans' top deadline target. However, the Seattle Mariners ended up winning the Suárez sweepstakes last year, and it cost them three top-20 prospects from their talented farm system: 1B Tyler Locklear, RHP Hunter Cranton, and RHP Juan Burgos.

Suárez went on to post a dismal slash line of .189/.255/.428 with the Mariners during the regular season, but made up for it, to some extent, by crushing three homers during Seattle's postseason run to Game 7 of the ALCS. Even still, Suárez's late-season struggles scared away teams during the offseason when the power-hitting corner infielder hit the free agent market. Eventually, after lingering on the market for much of the winter, Suárez signed a one-year, $15 million deal with the Reds on February 3.

Over the course of the 2026 campaign, Suárez has proved teams right for being hesitant to hand him a long-term deal this past winter. With the Reds, Suárez's OPS has dropped by more than 110 points from where it ended up last year, and after crushing 49 homers in 2025, Suárez has just 19 longballs to his name this year.

Therefore, though it wouldn't cost them any prospect capital to add their top 2025 trade deadline target, the Brewers should think twice before adding Suárez for their stretch run.

Despite need for more power, Brewers claiming Eugenio Suárez off waivers would be difficult to justify

For starters, Suárez is essentially a DH-only at this point in his career. He's compiled 39 starts at third base this year, but has -5 Defensive Runs Saved and -7 Outs Above Average in those limited opportunities. On a defensive-minded team like the Brewers, Suárez almost certainly wouldn't see the field. Therefore, if the Brewers were to claim him off waivers and add him to their roster for the final month of the season, it would be to serve as a platoon partner at the DH position with Christian Yelich.

However, there's a glaring problem with that approach: Suárez's production against left-handed pitching this year has plummeted. Though Suárez has been stronger against southpaws than right-handers his entire career, he has a brutal .177 batting average and a .668 OPS against left-handers this year, while maintaining a slightly better .216 batting average and a .715 OPS against righties.

On top of that, though Suárez has certainly been better during the month of August, with five homers, 18 RBI, and an .862 OPS during the month to prove it, he's continued to strike out at an unsustainable clip (29.8% K rate in August, 34.9% K rate on the season). In fact, Suárez's strikeout rate is the fourth-worst among all qualified hitters in baseball. Meanwhile, his expected numbers (.194 expected batting average, .341 expected slugging percentage) don't indicate that he's getting unlucky at the plate or that his August improvement is here to stay.

Therefore, while Suárez's 19 homers would rank second on the Brewers' roster right now, the player the Brewers would be claiming from their division rivals is not the same player they missed out on at last year's deadline. Sure, the risk of adding Suárez this year is far less now that no prospect capital is required to land him, but even still the move is hard to justify from the Brewers' perspective. Additionally, the Brewers, holders of the best record in baseball, have the lowest priority on the waiver wire, meaning every other team would need to pass on Suárez for Milwaukee to claim him.

UPDATE (8/27, 12:51 p.m. CT): According to Reds' reporter C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic, the Brewers and every other MLB team have officially passed on claiming Suárez off waivers. Suárez and teammate TJ Freidl, who was also placed on waivers, will instead remain with the Reds, who will play six games against the Brewers in the next 17 days.

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