What the Rays see in outfielder Jack Suwinski

As the clock ran out on the MLB trade deadline, the Rays made one final move by sending C Hunter Feduccia and minor league RP Jacob Kmatz to the Dodgers for Triple-A OF Jack Suwinkski and international bonus pool money. The Rays have been linked to several popular IFA guys in the 2027 class (including an 80-grade name right-handed pitcher Mussumbay Navarro) so that bonus pool money will be valuable, but Suwinski immediately becomes one of the more intriguing outfielders in the organization and is not to be overlooked.

Suwinski is a left-handed hitting outfielder with nearly 400 games of MLB experience with the Pirates from 2022-2025. He was DFA’d by the Pirates before being claimed by the Dodgers in February of this year. He went to work with the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate to work on his swing without sacrificing power — and he succeeded.

Suwinski’s swing change has two main components: a shorter bat bath with less barrel movement and a flatter bat angle. First, we’ll look at the swing length. He has reduced the amount his hands needed to travel to get his bat on the ball. Suwinski previously employed a bit of a hitch and barrel tip that added length and power to his swing, but at times his swing was too long and it resulted in a lot of whiff. This is evident in his 72.8% contact rate in the majors and 69.0% in AAA prior to the 2026 season. Suwinski’s shorter swing this season has allowed him to maintain a much more playable 79.6% contact rate. While all of that nearly 11% increase is unlikely to translate to major-league pitching, most of it should given the underlying mechanical adjustments that have allowed him to get to this point. This isn’t a hot streak or luck; it’s meaningful adjustments that allow him to handle advanced pitching.

Next, well look at his bat angle. Suwinski tweaked it to be less vertical and more “flat.” This change further supports his ability to make more contact. A steeper bat angle does produce more loft so Suwinski could be susceptible to ground balls, but so far this hasn’t been an issue. The images below are both on pitches that were low in the zone, so we can see how drastic the difference is in his bat angle when he begins his swing as he plants his front foot.

The result is a more balanced ability to handle different pitch types. To compare apples to apples, we’ll look at just the difference in his AAA data between 2022-2025 and the 2026 season so far:

Of course the sample size is different, but the exact numbers here are less important than the trends. Suwinski seems to have meaningfully improved his ability to handle secondaries without losing his ability to punish velocity.

On the defensive side, Suwinski is a fine defender in a corner outfield spot. Both his arm and speed are roughly average. The Rays are one of the better teams at improving outfielder jumps, so I am interested to see if they could improve his defense. Although that point is secondary as his bat is what could get him in a lineup everyday against righties.

Suwinski appears to be a nice depth option for the Rays with a few more years of team control. Left-handed outfield depth is relatively thin with both Fraley and Melton battling injuries most of the year, so the team rightfully saw some risk with the major league outfield depth. Suwinski doesn’t need a 40-man spot at the moment, and will not become a free agent until 2030. His adjustments have helped him find a new level of his game, and now he just needs an opportunity. That could come in 2026, but may be more likely in 2027.