ATLANTA (AP) — Two-time All-Star reliever Robert Suarez and the Atlanta Braves agreed Thursday to a $45 million, three-year contract.
He gets a $13 million salary in 2026 and $16 million in each of the following two seasons. He learned about the Braves from Jurickson Profar and Ronald Acuña Jr.
“As far as I can remember, they've always been competitive, apart from last season a team that's constantly in the postseason," Suarez said through an interpreter. "At the end of the day I just continued to hear so many good things about this clubhouse, this team, this organization, the way they treat their players, the city of Atlanta itself. And at the end of the day this was the right decision for me, and I couldn’t be happier and my family couldn’t be happier, either.”
He could be a setup man for closer Raisel Iglesias, who agreed last month to a $16 million, one-year contract and could become a free agent after the World Series.
“I’m willing to do whatever needs to be done,” Suarez said, “to just add my little grain of sand in the effort to help the team win in any which way."
The 34-year-old was 4-6 with 40 saves and a 2.97 ERA this year. He has 76 saves over the past two years and is 22-13 with a 2.91 ERA and 77 saves in four major league seasons, all with San Diego. He will donate 1% of his salary to the Atlanta Braves Foundation.
Left-hander Ryan Rolison was designated for assignment.
A day earlier, the Braves agreed to a $23 million, two-year contract with outfielder Mike Yastrzemski. The agreement includes a 2028 club option with the potential to make the deal worth $26 million over three seasons.
The 35-year-old hit .233 with 17 home runs and 46 RBIs in 146 games last year for San Francisco and Kansas City. He could play in all three outfield positions and as a designated hitter.
“The number one thing is the history of organization in trying to win,” Yastrzemski said. “You only have so may chances to win, and the first thing that drew me here was the strong commitment to constantly trying to win a championship.”
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FILE - San Diego Padres' Robert Suarez throws the ball during the sixth inning of Game 3 of a National League wild card baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Oct. 2, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Huh, File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called a U.S. push for the denuclearization of North Korea an “anachronistic dream,” saying Sunday the North will steadily expand its nuclear arsenal in the face of U.S.-led threats.
The statement came a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits North Korea for talks with Kim Jong Un, in his first visit to the country in seven years.
“The U.S. assertion to backbite the status of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state has no legally binding force and no one will be bound by the U.S. unilateral rhetoric,” said Kim's sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.
She dismissed as “false information” a U.S. announcement that President Donald Trump and Xi confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea in their summit in Beijing last month.
“Some officials in the United States have failed to wake from their escapist and anachronistic dream,” Kim Yo Jong said.
North Korea has been focusing on enlarging its nuclear arsenal since Kim Jong Un's high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say the North Korean leader wants an international recognition as a nuclear state so that he could demand lifting of international economic sanctions on North Korea.
During a visit to a new nuclear materials production plant last week, Kim Jong Un said North Korea would bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.” On Sunday, North Korea's state media reported Kim Jong Un visited a weapons factory the previous day and called for increasing the country's missile production capacity 2.5 times under a five-year plan period.
In her statement, Kim Yo Jong accused the U.S. and South Korea of pushing for “ceaseless arms build-ups," saying her brother's push for “steadily beefing up the nuclear war deterrent for self-defense” is “an irreversible final conclusion to be carried out unconditionally.”
Analysts say Xi's visit to North Korea is largely meant to reassert China's influence over North Korea, whose foreign policy priority has shifted to Russia in recent years. They say Xi will likely refrain from directly raising the denuclearization issue and offer economic assistance programs during his meeting with Kim Jong Un.
North Korea has sent troops and conventional weapons to Russia to back its war efforts against Ukraine. South Korean and U.S. officials say North Korea has received economic and other assistance from Russia in return.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, front right, visits a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels at an undisclosed place in North Korea Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
FILE - Kim Yo Jong, a sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)
