Mariners fans could sorely miss Eugenio Suárez if he lands with AL East contender

The Seattle Mariners' company line on Eugenio Suárez has been consistent since Day 1 of the offseason. The door is open for his return, but they're confident enough in what they have at third base that he's not exactly a priority. For all intents and purposes, the page has been turned.

And this is fine. Or at least, it should be considered fine. Suárez delivered plenty of good memories to Mariners fans — fine, go ahead and watch the grand slam again — in separate stints with the team, but he was mostly hard to watch after he came back this summer. He hit only .189 in 53 games, and his bat didn't seem to have the same zip as he got further away from his 34th birthday on July 18.

Mariners fans could miss Eugenio Suárez if he lands with AL East contender

Yet even if the timing feels right for Seattle to say goodbye to Suárez, you can still imagine a scenario in which the Mariners end up missing him. All it would take is him going off for another 40-homer season, and there's no place he'd be more likely to do so than in Boston.

It therefore grabs one's attention that the Red Sox have had talks with Suárez, according to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. He looks like a fallback option after they whiffed on Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso, yet he fits them a lot better than he fits the Mariners. As of now, the Red Sox could give Suárez at-bats at third base, first base and designated hitter.

More to the point, Suárez plus Fenway Park brings that one Predator handshake meme to mind. For why, well, check out the directional distribution of his 325 career home runs:

• Left Field: 193
• Center Field: 85
• Right Field: 47

This isn't a dead-pull hitter. This is a drop-dead-pull hitter. And it comes from how only three right-handed hitters have pulled more fly balls than Suárez since 2019, an impressive feat considering that he failed to even put a ball in play in 30 percent of his plate appearances in this span.

A right-handed hitter like that taking aim at the Green Monster for 81 games per season? Yeah, that sounds like a nightmare for the opposition. And while Statcast estimates that Suárez would have fewer career home runs if he'd been calling Fenway Park home this whole time, that strains belief. And even it were to dampen his home run total, you can see the trade-off being a veritable boatload of doubles.

As for whether Boston will actually sign Suárez, you have to figure he's a Plan B behind re-upping with Alex Bregman. Yet he also fits the club's philosophy, which apparently involves giving long-term deals for free agents a wide berth.

Either way, Boston seems like a more likely destination for Suárez than Seattle. And if he does land with the Red Sox, it may just be a matter of time before Mariners fans' acceptance turns into regret.