Dateline: Cincinnati
Eugenio Suarez left the team and headed to Miami, Florida to be sworn in as a United States citizen.
The Reds are fully supporting his absence for the purpose.
Was born July 18, 1991 in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela.
He has been in the US on visa's since 2011 after he was signed by the Detroit Tigers in 2009 and spent two seasons, playing in the Venezuela Summer League.
The Reds traded Alfredo Simon to the Tigers for Suarez in December after he played 85 games in Detroit in 2014.
Suarez played seven season for the Reds and was traded to the Seattle Mariners before the 2022 season. The Reds resigned him to a free agent contract during the winter.
Suarez is in his eighth season with the Reds and considers Cincinnati as his baseball home. He resides in Miami, Florida.
He hit his 209th home run in a Cincinnati uniform on Saturday (083026) to put him 10th on the Reds list for career home runs. His next will tie him with Ken Griffey Jr. for ninth on the list.
Ever proud on his native country, he played for the Venezuelan World Baseball Classic in 2023 and the classic this year. He had some key hits as Venezuela won the Classic in March.
He hit 49 home runs in 2019 that surpassed Miguel Cabrera for the most home runs by a Venezuelan player in Major League Baseball. It was important for him as Cabrera was his mother's favorite player.
When Nicolas Maduro took over the presidency in 2019 with a voter absentee rate of 68% that protests challenged the unfavorable person who took control of the country.
Suarez played a protest song as his walkup music was Mis Ilusiones.
Hear it here:
https://youtu.be/a6aqKkoCMrA?si=Gp9yz2LOkc2VsNpy
Suarez has been studying for the naturalization test for weeks and has been in the process for a couple years.
The Reds fully support the popular player and team leader.
"It is very, very cool that he is doing this," Terry Francona said. "The timing of it, if people are wondering, it is not his timing. If you can imagine when you're dealing with the government, you go when they tell you. I saw him on this last trip. He was practicing his questions. He knew them a lot better than I did. We could put him on the restricted list and I agree with Nick (Krall) and Brad (Meador) it would not be a good look."
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