CLEARWATER, Fla. — Ranger Suárez’s baseline demeanor makes it difficult to read how he’s actually feeling. He approaches life like he does a groundball back to him on the mound: nonchalantly, with a hint of annoyance.
He does not sound irritated when he talks about a stiff back that could delay the start of an important season. “Really, I think it’s better for it to happen now than during the season,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “It wouldn’t be ideal for any of us if this happened during the season.” Suárez missed a month with back soreness in 2024. He does not think this injury is as bad.
He’s running out of time to be ready.
“I don’t think that we’re going to take it that slow,” Suárez said. “We’re one week away from the season starting. So I want to take care of it as quickly as possible so I can be back out there again.”
But Suárez, who was scheduled to play catch Friday, did not pick up a baseball. He will do that Saturday. Then, the Philadelphia Phillies will know how he’s feeling. If the catch goes well, Suárez could stay in Florida when the Phillies break camp, and face some minor-league hitters. There is still a path for him to make the Opening Day roster.
“Theoretically, yeah,” Rob Thomson said.
Not a strong endorsement from the Phillies manager.
“We’ll just have to see,” Thomson said. “We want to make sure we’re careful with him.”
The Phillies will have Zack Wheeler, Jesús Luzardo and Aaron Nola start in the opening series against the Washington Nationals. Cristopher Sánchez has the home opener, March 31 against the Colorado Rockies. Wheeler will pitch the fifth game on six days’ rest. The Phillies won’t need a fifth starter until April 3, the sixth game.
Odds are it’s Taijuan Walker, who will start Monday’s Grapefruit League finale. Walker has had a decent spring; his velocity has returned to 2023 levels. It’s not ideal, but this is why the Phillies have kept Walker.
If Suárez is placed on the injured list, he could return as soon as April 8 in Atlanta. Maybe it’s nothing, but Suárez’s stuff looked flat in the few spring appearances he made. Suárez said his back did not hurt until last weekend. His velocity was down — even compared to Grapefruit League games last season.
“It was good,” Suárez said. “I mean, I was having a lot of success. I was having a good spring training, I think. It was pain-free until that happened. Good overall.”
The new backup
Rafael Marchán will start the season as the Phillies’ backup catcher. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
When Thomson summoned Rafael Marchán into his office Thursday morning to deliver the news he’d made the team, it took Marchán back almost five years.
“It felt like when I came up for the first time,” Marchán said. “I’m really proud of my job and all that I’ve been doing the last couple years. I am more focused. This is a season to go into the spring and be healthy. I feel like I’m doing the right things.”
No one has to tell Marchán that he is replacing a popular figure inside the clubhouse. Marchán spent time last year with Garrett Stubbs, monitoring how he prepares and develops relationships with the pitchers.
The Venezuelan catcher has had a long journey — he signed as a teenager in 2015 — to reach this moment.
“I try to be myself,” Marchán said. “That’s the most important thing. Find a way to get to those guys. Have the best information to help them perform well.”
He has worked on his English for years; Marchán was able to communicate in the language when he was a rookie in 2020. But he has sharpened it every year since. Now, he is more comfortable speaking it. He credited “Grey’s Anatomy,” a show he has watched for years. “That’s a long series,” Marchán said. “But I liked that it had weird terms in English.”
The English that teachers use in a class setting might not be what he hears in a clubhouse. So he watches Kevin Hart’s standup acts on Netflix and YouTube.
“Because I like to get the bad humor,” Marchán said. “A lot of these guys like to use it. That’s something that I like to learn. I keep learning every day. So it’s fun.”
Injury updates
Matt Strahm will pitch Saturday at the New York Yankees, and if all goes well in that outing, he should be ready to go for Opening Day. Strahm (left shoulder inflammation) has not pitched since March 5. He has reported no issues this week as he has accelerated his throwing program.
Weston Wilson (left oblique strain) has continued to progress in his rehab work. Wilson has been running, doing defensive drills and taking some light swings. It’s been a month since Wilson suffered the injury; he expects to stay in Florida and begin a minor-league rehab assignment with Low-A Clearwater in early April.
The Phillies plan to use the 20-day rehab clock to give Wilson a full spring training. He’s on track to return to the majors in late April or early May.
This and that
Max Kepler signs autographs before Friday’s game against the Twins. (Jonathan Dyer / Imagn Images)
Max Kepler smoked two more balls Friday against his former team, the Minnesota Twins. He’s among the MLB leaders in hard-hit rate this spring.
“A couple of days ago he was playing, and he swung and missed,” Thomson said. “We’re kind of shocked that he swung and missed because, I mean, every at-bat’s been good. He sees the baseball so well and early, it looks like. So he’s either on it or he’s taking. He doesn’t chase. He doesn’t get out of the zone very much.”
Can a great spring alter the manager’s thinking about where Kepler hits in the batting order?
“Sure,” Thomson said. “Absolutely. If you look at the lineups we’ve been running out there when we have everybody, he’s usually hitting in that five spot.”
GO DEEPER
Max Kepler feeling comfortable in Phillies clubhouse in first spring away from Twins
• By rule, Stubbs had 72 hours to report to minor-league camp after being optioned to Triple A on Thursday. But Friday morning, he was on the back fields at the Carpenter Complex for batting practice. He took some hacks against Andrew Painter in a live session.
A few coaches from the big-league staff ventured to the back fields to find Stubbs and wish him well. Stubbs said he will remain the club’s union rep; he is still on the 40-man roster and represented. Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies’ assistant player rep, will handle some matters.
• A minor-league pitcher to watch: Daniel Harper is a 2022 17th-round pick who turns 26 in June, but he has made an impression on the Phillies and rival evaluators this spring. He has touched 99 mph and has been a frequent call-up from minor-league camp. Harper has a hard slider that needs refinement.
He could begin the season at Double-A Reading, although he’d move quickly with a string of strong performances.
• The Phillies made a round of minor-league releases Friday morning as they attempt to conform with MLB’s mandated organizational roster limits. Among them: Ethan Wilson, a second-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. The outfielder was a .231/.288/.374 hitter in four seasons and reached Triple A in 2024.
(Top photo of Ranger Suárez: Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
