Ranger Suarez back in Phillies camp with forearm tightness

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Ranger Suarez was unexpectedly back in Phillies camp Friday morning to get a bout of left forearm tightness checked out.

The lefty had his arm tighten up after starting against Houston for Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic squad Wednesday. The 27-year-old isn’t worried, though he seems rarely perturbed by anything, and returned to Phillies camp to get it checked out.

“That outing against the Astros, when I got on the mound, after the second inning, I felt some forearm tightness,” Suarez said via a translator. “So I decided to come back and get checked out and make sure everything was OK. Obviously that’s important to me.”

Manager Rob Thomson is similarly unconcerned.

“We’re pretty confident that it’s nothing,” he said before Friday’s game with Pittsburgh. “He’s just got a little bit of pain in his forearm, and I think they’ll knock it out in a couple of days and we’ll see where we are.”

Suarez went 1.2 innings in West Palm Beach, allowing three hits, an earned run, two walks and three strikeouts. It was his first outing of the spring, which had been the plan from the Phillies.

Suarez said the plan is to get a few extra days of rest and see how the issue progresses. He hasn’t had an MRI and sees it as, “not a big thing.”

It adds a bit of uncertainty to the Phillies’ rotation to start the season. Suarez is slotted in tentatively as the third starter; new arrival and presumptive fourth starter Taijuan Walker is away with Mexico at the World Baseball Classic. The battle for the fifth spot seems settled by Andrew Painter’s elbow issues, likely falling to Bailey Falter.

Suarez was excellent last year, going 10-7 with a 3.65 ERA in 155.1 innings. He picked up wins in both the NLCS and World Series plus a save in the former, allowing two earned runs in 14.2 postseason innings.

Suarez is unsure of next steps but hopes to be available when the team breaks camp.

“I think so. That’s what I’m hoping for,” he said. “I know it’s a very long season, so I don’t want to miss much of it.”