From teen prospect in rural Venezuela to All-Star: How Ranger Suárez became ‘that guy’ with the Phillies

To hear Sal Agostinelli tell it, Ranger Suárez came down from a mountain in Venezuela, appeared before three Phillies scouts, signed for $25,000 at age 16, and threw darts that dipped and dove and dotted the edges of the strike zone.

OK, so that last part might be an exaggeration.

“The way it is in this business,” said Agostinelli, the Phillies’ long-tenured former director of international scouting, “we make so many mistakes because we’re seeing guys at 15-16, and now 13-14, years old. There’s a lot of attrition here. You lose kids for so many different reasons.

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“So, when a guy like Ranger gets there and becomes that guy, it’s not a question of us taking credit. It’s like, ‘Thank God. We got a guy for the big leagues.’”

In this case, though, Agostinelli is being unnecessarily modest. Because a dozen years after Suárez showed up at a Phillies academy in Venezuela that has since been shuttered because of unstable conditions in the country, he was picked for the All-Star Game on Tuesday night in Texas.

(Suárez pitched Friday and was replaced on the National League roster by Braves lefty Max Fried.)

Even with back-to-back-to-back clunkers heading into the break that he clearly needs — including Friday night’s four-run, six-inning dud against the A’s — Suárez had a dreamy first half. The 28-year-old lefty won his first nine decisions and gave up fewer than three earned runs in 13 of his first 16 starts. His 2.76 ERA (up from 1.83 two weeks ago) still ranks third among NL pitchers with at least 100 innings.

At one point, there was even a chance Suárez would join Félix Hernández as the only Venezuelan pitchers to start an All-Star Game. But Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes locked up the assignment with seven no-hit innings Thursday. With his 1.90 ERA and triple-digit heater, Skenes is the most hyped All-Star starter since at least Shohei Ohtani in 2021 and maybe Matt Harvey in 2013.

Regardless, Suárez’s rise from a mid-rotation starter to a stalwart beside Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola has enabled the Phillies to amass the best record in baseball and boost their odds of winning the World Series to 15.4% entering the weekend, according to Fangraphs.

Suárez also represents a triumph for the organization’s international scouting. In the last 25 years, he’s sixth among Phillies pitchers in wins above replacement (13.2, according to Baseball-Reference), trailing Cole Hamels, Nola, Wheeler, Cliff Lee, and Roy Halladay. In the last 40 years, only Carlos Ruiz has more WAR (21.9) among Phillies international amateur signees.

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It’s OK, then, for Agostinelli and Co. to take a bow.

But Suárez’s baseball origin story really begins with a scout named Rogel Andrade, who found him in a rural town in northwest Venezuela and wondered if he might be ... wait for it ... an outfielder. And it can’t be told without emphasizing the influence of a former major league pitcher from Venezuela who became a father figure to Suárez.

“I feel very proud of him,” Lester Straker said by phone. “He’s a smart kid. He knows what he’s doing on the mound. He could win 20 games. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Suárez’s unlikely path to the All-Star Game is proof of that.

Not familiar with Lester Straker? OK, gather ‘round.

Straker signed with the Reds out of Venezuela before the 1977 season and bounced around the minors for 10 years, first with Cincinnati and later with Oakland. Eventually, he landed with the Twins and pitched for Charlie Manuel in triple A in Toledo, Ohio, in 1986.

In the spring of 1987, the Twins were filling out their rotation after Bert Blyleven and Frank Viola. Straker had a knack for getting ground balls with his sinking two-seam fastball. The Twins gave him a shot to begin the season as the No. 5 starter.

Six months later, he became the first Venezuelan pitcher to start a World Series game.

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“He came from nowhere,” Viola said this week. “They brought in a bunch of veteran arms — Joe Niekro, Steve Carlton — in the middle of the season, and out of nowhere, Les came. Not a lot of people knew about Les, but he was steady as they come.

“And the next thing you know, he was gone.”

Straker posted a 4.28 ERA in 40 starts over two seasons for Minnesota. But his major-league career spanned all of 540 days, short-circuited by a disagreement with the Twins over an elbow injury. He spent years pitching overseas in Mexico, Italy, Taiwan, and of course, Venezuela, where he gained notoriety for his World Series star turn. He got into coaching with the Blue Jays before taking over as the Phillies’ pitching coach in the Venezuelan Summer League in 2004.

That was where, in 2012, he met Suárez.

“When I first saw him, he showed me he had talent, and he was a smart kid,” said Straker, still coaching with the Phillies but in the Dominican Republic. “He always had good control when he was pitching. He knew what to do on the mound. I just told him what my old coaches told me: ‘You can never be afraid of the hitters. Just go after them.’”

Suárez credits Straker with more than that. He said a few years ago that Straker taught him to throw a sinking two-seam fastball, the pitch that got both of them to the majors.

“I needed something, so I talked to Lester,” Suárez said. “Lester said, ‘Start throwing a two-seamer, a sinker type of pitch. That will help you induce ground balls.’ I feel like it moves enough to get the job done. Any time I need a grounder, I feel like I can count on my sinker.”

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It has been that way for years. Suárez throws the sinker roughly one-third of the time. It’s unique in that it averages 28 inches of drop, 3.9 inches more than the average sinker, causing hitters to swing over the top of the ball. Entering Friday’s start, he was holding opponents to a .238 average and .361 slugging percentage with the pitch.

Command is important for every pitcher. For Suárez, it’s critical. When the Phillies signed him, his fastball maxed out at 85 to 87 mph. He added velocity as he matured, but it seemed unlikely that he would ever be a flamethrower.

So, Suárez developed a repertoire with which he could play one pitch off another and change speeds. Over the years, he picked up a curveball. He added a cutter after he was already in the majors. This season, he has used four different pitches at least 15% of the time, mixing it all like a blender.

But there have been two constants since Suárez signed in 2012: The sinker, and impeccable control, Straker’s twin focuses in their three seasons together.

Agostinelli described Straker as “like a father” to Suárez and said no one in the organization has had a bigger impact on him. Straker was in the stands at Citizens Bank Park when Suárez shut out the Astros for 5⅔ innings in Game 3 of the 2022 World Series. Before the game, he delivered a familiar message.

“Don’t walk anybody,” he said. “You cannot walk people.”

Old habits die hard.

“When I signed in Cincinnati, they told me, ‘When you’ve got a guy with two strikes, you have to pitch inside.’ That’s how I learned to throw my sinker inside,” Straker said. “That’s what I always use to tell him. He was throwing like 89, 90, 91. The highest was like 92. But that sinker — and he had a pretty good change-up, too — that was good for him.”

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Because he was able to locate it to a precise spot. In 2014, his third year in the Venezuelan Summer League, Suárez faced 312 batters and walked one.

One.

It was during that season that Straker made a prediction to Ray Robles, then a coordinator in the Phillies’ international operations department. After watching Suárez, then 18, throw in the bullpen, he turned to Robles and said, “This kid is going to be a big-league pitcher.”

“When I see a kid throw in the bullpen, they show you what they can do in the game, and he showed me he mixed his pitches well every time,” Straker said. “That’s what I liked from him.”

Said Robles: “I have never forgotten about that moment. Glad it became a reality.”

Suárez made his major-league debut in 2018, pitched in relief in 2019, and missed nearly all of the short 2020 season because of a COVID illness. He began 2021 in the bullpen, closing games in midseason, then transitioned to the rotation in August.

In 81 starts since then, he has a 3.23 ERA.

All while averaging no more than 92.3 mph on his fastball.

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Suárez reminds Straker of Viola, the classic “crafty lefty” who won the World Series MVP in 1987 and the AL Cy Young Award in 1988 despite not overpowering hitters. He mixed pitches, including his trademark change-up with a circle grip.

“You don’t have to break the Jugs gun. All you’ve got to be able to do is spot the ball,” said Viola, pitching coach for the High Point Rockers of the independent Atlantic League. “It’s called pitching. It’s really a pleasure for me to watch those guys and how they add, subtract, show contrast off their pitches.

“Comparing [Suárez] to what I used to be like, it makes you feel good to even be put in the same sentence as a kid who’s pitching that good.”

Suárez has another signature trait: his unflappability, almost an outward nonchalance. It’s a carefree vibe that dates back to his teenage years at the Venezuelan academy, when he would prioritize refining his pitches over getting lights-out results and playfully scold Agostinelli for drinking diet soda.

“He likes to joke, play around. He’s just like that,” Straker said. “Easy go, easy come.”

But Straker also said Suárez heeded his advice that “you’ve got to be mean” to be effective against major-league hitters. And multiple people close to Suárez said he was angry after giving up three runs in 4⅔ innings in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series and suggested it may have caused him to redouble his offseason training. He showed up to spring training in better shape — and on time, after years of being delayed by visa problems.

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Before the season, Suárez cited staying healthy and pitching 200 innings as his goals. So far, so good. It may position him for a nine-figure contract extension with the Phillies — or a sizable raise from his $5.05 million salary in his final round of arbitration before becoming eligible for free agency after next year.

Whatever the case, it’s a long way from bullpen sessions with Straker, leaving only one question: Who’s the bigger star back home?

“I think people don’t know him so good because he’s never played in Venezuela,” Straker said. “But he’s going to be a big shot there now.”