The Phillies made their biggest move of the offseason just before Christmas, trading for Jesús Luzardo from the Miami Marlins. Luzardo rounds out a rotation of five starters who could go toe-to-toe with any of the top teams in baseball on a given day.

But there’s another way the Phillies could spin the Luzardo acquisition–by trading fellow lefty Ranger Suárez coming off his 2024 All-Star campaign.

Entering his final season of team control, Suárez is projected for an $11.3 million salary, per Spotrac. It’s a more-than-reasonable price to pay for an All-Star pitcher, but the Phillies might not be confident they’ll get the All-Star version of Suárez this time around.

Earlier this week, Jovan Alford of FanSided predicted that the Phillies would trade Suárez this season, before risking losing him altogether in free agency.

“After acquiring Jesus Luzardo in a trade from the Miami Marlins last month, the Phillies could move on from Suarez before the start of the 2025 season or at the trade deadline,” Alford wrote.

“The Phillies have a good problem as they have a surplus of pitching in the starting rotation, but that could leave Suarez as the odd man out. It also doesn’t help that he’s being represented by super agent Scott Boras, which signifies that he could want a huge payday.”

Suárez had a 2.76 ERA before the All-Star break (under two for most of the first half) versus a 5.65 mark after it. Watching him pitch live, it was clear on several occasions that his stuff was diminished, with his fastball occasionally failing to crack 90 miles per hour.

He also spent nearly a full month on the injured list with lower back soreness.

Trades are all about teams’ internal evaluations, and this one comes down to how much the Phillies believe Suárez’s second-half dip was due to regression versus injury. If they think his best days are already behind him, they could make Alford’s prediction come true.