It's time to end the Jose Suarez experiment

I was against giving Jose Suarez one more start, but I can see why Phil Nevin opted to keep him in the rotation. Suarez had a nice finish to last season and had always pitched well against Oakland. If there was ever a team for Suarez to turn it around against, you'd think it'd be the 4-18 A's. This was his moment. Unfortunately, Suarez turned in his worst start of the season. That has to be it for him in the Los Angeles Angels rotation.

LA Angels pitcher Jose Suarez cannot start his next time out

Jose Suarez opening the 2023 season in the Angels rotation was a no-brainer. After a rough start to last season, he finished very strongly and showed some signs of being a consistent enough back-end starting pitcher. Suarez had his issues getting deeper into games, but overall you could see the improvement. Suarez is nowhere near where he was last season.

Last night was a chance for Suarez to make a statement. Facing the worst team in baseball, the Angels lefty had a chance to put up a quality start and remain in the rotation at least for the short-term. Not only did he fail to put up a quality start, he was downright awful in the first three innings.

Five home runs allowed against THAT team? Two apiece for Brent Rooker and Jesus Aguilar? A three-run home run to Kevin Smith? Of the 16 balls put in play against Suarez, 11 of them were hit 95 mph or harder. An absolutely disgraceful performance.

Suarez has a 10.26 ERA through four starts. He's allowed 20 runs (19 earned) in 16.2 innings pitched. He's walked nine batters compared to just 12 strikeouts. He's allowed seven home runs and 29 hits in totality. He has not been a big league pitcher.

After the game, Phil Nevin said a conversation will have to be had regarding Suarez's future in the rotation. This conversation shouldn't last more than five seconds. He cannot be used as a starting pitcher on a team trying to win. If the Angels want to keep him as a long reliever who pitches in games that are out of hand, that's fine with me, but he either has to be in that role or DFA'd. They cannot afford to run him out every sixth day anymore.

The Angels showed a sense of urgency to win right now when they promoted Zach Neto. They must show this same urgency when it comes to the starting rotation. If this team wants to win this season, Jose Suarez is not the answer right now. Whether it's Tucker Davidson, Chase Silseth, or someone else, I really don't care. Just not Jose Suarez. He doesn't even know what's going wrong.