José Suarez! Sunday! In the majors! A debut! Be there! Square!

Angels prospect José Suarez will make his major league debut Sunday in Seattle, reports Angels Pipeline:

The news has since been confirmed by the OCR’s Jeff Fletcher and the Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya. That makes it now three call-ups Angels Pipeline has broken (Walsh, Puello, and now Suarez). Give them a follow if you haven’t already!

Suarez is the Angels’ #5 prospect. Griffin Canning, who is ahead of him on that list, has already made starts for the Angels this year. Here is what MLB.com has to say about him:

When the Angels signed Suarez in July 2014, they hoped his advanced feel for pitching would allow him to move through their system fairly quickly. He didn’t fill them with confidence when he first began, struggling a bit to find consistency when he came to the United States in 2015 and again in 2016. He pitched well in his first taste of full-season ball in 2017, but really took a huge leap forward in 2018 when he pitched his way across three levels of the system and spent most of the year in Triple-A at age 20.

Suarez might be under six feet tall and not seem like the most athletic or conditioned pitcher, but he more than handled the increased workload in 2018, topping 100 innings for the first time, and he really knows how to pitch. His low-90s fastball plays up because he commands it so well and has plus life that leads to a lot of groundball outs. His plus changeup has sink also, and he throws it with outstanding deception. His curveball continued to improve and will flash better than average at times.

When the Angels signed Suarez in July 2014, they hoped his advanced feel for pitching would allow him to move through their system fairly quickly. He didn’t fill them with confidence when he first began, struggling a bit to find consistency when he came to the United States in 2015 and again in 2016. He pitched well in his first taste of full-season ball in 2017, but really took a huge leap forward in 2018 when he pitched his way across three levels of the system and spent most of the year in Triple-A at age 20.

Suarez might be under six feet tall and not seem like the most athletic or conditioned pitcher, but he more than handled the increased workload in 2018, topping 100 innings for the first time, and he really knows how to pitch. His low-90s fastball plays up because he commands it so well and has plus life that leads to a lot of groundball outs. His plus changeup has sink also, and he throws it with outstanding deception. His curveball continued to improve and will flash better than average at times.

While he is a strike thrower who is more than happy to get early count outs, he’s also shown his ability to miss bats, even at the highest levels of the system. He’s knocking on the big league door as a 21-year-old with a mid-rotation ceiling.

Suarez was born on January 3, 1998, making him 21. It’s close, but there has still not been an Angel younger than I (Jo Adell will probably be the first).

Suarez moved quickly through the ranks last year, getting all the way up to AAA. This year, in Salt Lake City, he has a 2-0 record with a 3.91 ERA in the PCL, where stats are heavily inflated. (Justin Bour has ten home runs down there, for instance.)

It remains to be seen whether Suarez will have an opener or not, although all signs point to yes.

Finally, enjoy this highlight video from FanGraphs:

As an aside, Happy Birthday to David Fletcher!

#ToK