D-backs Return Eugenio Suárez to Mariners: Tyler Locklear, Juan Burgos Headline Return

It’s now clear that the Arizona Diamondbacks intend to use this trade deadline to rebuild their organizational depth. Their latest deal has them sending back Eugenio Suárez to the Seattle Mariners. The return is first baseman Tyler Locklear, a major league ready reliever prospect in Juan Burgos, and a back-of-the-bullpen upside play in Hunter Cranton.

The D-backs originally acquired Suárez ahead of the 2024 season for catcher Seby Zavala and reliever Carlos Vargas. It’s safe to say Arizona was the winner of that deal, as Geno slashed .253/.319/.513 with 66 home runs, 188 RBI, and a 126 OPS+ as a key middle-of-the-order bat. Despite below-average glove work at third base, the bat was strong enough to add up to 6.4 bWAR.

Suárez becomes the third high-profile move at the deadline, following Josh Naylor and Randal Grichuk. Like Suárez, Naylor was also sent to the Mariners. We should expect two more trades, one for Merrill Kelly and the other for Zac Gallen, as the D-backs embark on their rebuild. Barring crazy hijinks and more Mike Hazen trade wizardry, it seems like 2027 will be the next season the team will be competing for a postseason spot.

Here are the main takeaways from the Suárez deal. It will be a long but very detailed breakdown, so grab some coffee, and let’s go through it.

Who Replaces Eugenio Suárez at Third Base?

The D-backs find themselves in a very odd position concerning the hot corner. While Locklear could be viewed as a potential solution at first base, they’re still scrambling for answers on the other side. As mentioned in a previous newsletter, I mentioned Blaze Alexander as the logical candidate to get consistent reps while top prospect Jordan Lawlar finishes his recovery from a hamstring strain.

There’s something to be said about Lawlar, who’s struggled to stay healthy since getting selected with Arizona’s top selection in the 2021 Draft. He’s lost a lot of time due to various injuries over the years. The only season in which he was healthy from start to end was 2023, his debut season. Despite all of that, the runway is now clear for him to get consistent reps at the plate at third base. However, I wonder if there could be a creative solution where Lawlar plays short and Perdomo slides to third base now that the latter’s underlying metrics have finally caught up to his production.

The potential long-term solution at the position is LuJames Groover III. Groover is having a solid season with Double-A Amarillo, hitting .296 with 10 home runs and a 117 wRC+. Those are good numbers, but don’t project to be a strong difference maker offensively.

His low power production is pretty consistent with what I saw in the Arizona Fall League, where he can hit the ball hard but not in the ideal launch angles to do serious damage. Despite solid exit velocity numbers, his hard-hit contact (95.0 MPH exit velocities or higher) was mostly in what I describe as the low-launch (8-20° launch angle) half of the Sweet Spot range. They’ll translate to hits, but mostly in the form of singles and doubles.

Perhaps that’s his strength at the plate, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every lineup need someone who can produce hits with runners in scoring position, and the lesser power projection is more acceptable if he can stick at third.

Mike Hazen is Building the Bullpen Through Prospects

Most teams at the deadline build their bullpen at the trade deadline by going after an established arm. That was the case this year, as the Phillies and Padres have swung deals for Jhoan Duran and Mason Miller, despite multiple years of control beyond 2025. Ryan Helsley was another closer moved ahead of the deadline, going to the New York Mets.

Instead, D-backs GM Mike Hazen seems to be taking the exact opposite approach. The deadline has seen him acquire four relievers, all of whom should be firmly entrenched in the major league bullpen by the final game of 2026. In addition to Burgos and Cranton, Hazen has acquired Brandyn Garcia and Andrew Hoffman in separate trades. Garcia, Burgos, and Hoffman should be in the major league bullpen in September, in my opinion.

Due to injuries to key veterans, the D-backs’ bullpen is very young right now. The only established arm they have is right-hander Kevin Ginkel, who was their bullpen X-factor in their 2023 postseason run with 11.2 scoreless innings. Even though he’s having a down season in 2025, he is projected to be their Opening Day closer in 2026, barring some significant addition in the next nine months.

This could be what Arizona’s bullpen looks like in the final weeks of the season:

• RHP Kevin Ginkel (Primary Closer)
• LHP Kyle Backhus
• LHP Brandyn Garcia
• LHP Andrew Saalfrank
• RHP Andrew Hoffman
• RHP Juan Morillo
• RHP Juan Burgos
• RHP Jake Woodford (Multiple Innings)
• RHP Bryce Jarvis (Multiple Innings)

This projection has been updated following the news of the Shelby Miller to the Brewers deal, which will also include offloading some of Jordan Montgomery’s remaining salary.

For those who counted correctly, there are nine relievers listed because they can carry an extra arm in September. They are not going to stray away from a five-man rotation, considering their poor starting pitching depth in Triple-A.

With a young and inexperienced bullpen, expect a lot of volatile and frustrating outings as these guys try to figure things out on the fly. There are some intriguing arms in that group; the only question is how quickly they develop consistency. Manager Torey Lovullo prefers to have options he can trust, and that’s something that has to be earned.

It will be interesting to see if the philosophy of adding a bunch of high-octane arms with solid traits will be a plausible way for Hazen to build a bullpen. His track record has been dreadful in this area, especially the back end. One area he’s been exceptional at during his entire tenure running the ship has been making quality additions at the right time.

Perhaps that’s the missing ingredient: take on quality relievers who don’t fit a team’s current timeline and find a spot for them. We’ve seen it both ways in the last two years, including his acquisition of A.J. Puk for two prospects that weren’t going to move the needle forward. Now as a seller, he’s “buying” on young but high-upside reliever talent.

If this approach doesn’t work, his epitaph for his current job might as well read, “Good-to-great GM who is a wizard at pulling off impressive trades at the right time but got undermined by his inability to assemble a functional bullpen, save for the final two months of the 2023 season in which the team got to a World Series.”

If you enjoyed the analysis so far, please consider subscribing. The rest of the piece will be dedicated to paid subscribers only as I focus on the prospect return in the deal.