SARASOTA, Fla. — Most ballplayers use cliches to describe their approach.

Oftentimes, they’re said to simply get the interview over with or not give away a competitive advantage. When Orioles pitcher Albert Suárez utters them, though, they seem more honest.

The 35-year-old has seen it all during his 17-year career. He’s played in both MLB’s American and National leagues, NPB in Japan, KBO in Korea and the Venezuelan Winter League. He’s pitched in 366 games and accumulated 1,562 innings while spending nearly half of his life as a professional baseball player. And as if that’s not enough, Suárez has journeyed through this odyssey while having three kids with his wife, Corneyris.

So when Suárez looks calm on the mound and talks that way after, it’s not an act.

“Right now, I think I’m a master at that,” Suárez said. “When you’re young, it’s different. When you learn how to control the things that you can control, you don’t worry about things that you don’t need to. A lot of people worry about too many things they don’t have to.”

Suárez went halfway around the world to continue playing, and the way Japan and Korea changed him led him back to MLB after seven years away. He matured and fine-tuned his pitch arsenal, the Orioles noticed and brought him in, and Suárez came out of nowhere last year to help steady the ballclub’s season.

But each season presents a new challenge, and Suárez’s is baseball’s never-ending pendulum. Hitters will always adjust, and he has to be ready.

That’s why he’s hoping to add a new pitch.

“It goes back and forth with hitters,” he said. “For me, I know they know I’m going to throw the fastball. They know that I work on the upper half of the zone. At the same time, I also watch the hitters’ videos, too, so I know how to pitch them.”

Suárez doesn’t exactly know what to call it, though.

“It’s kind of between the cutter and curveball,” he said.

“It’s kind of like a slider,” he added later. OK, slider, let’s go with that.

Suárez is tinkering with the slider, which would be the fifth pitch in his repertoire, this spring. The pitch is about 83 mph, Suárez said, putting it four ticks faster than his curveball and about 3 1/2 mph slower than his cutter.

He threw it to hitters during his live bullpen Monday, and he’s pleased with the results so far. He’s waiting to see how hitters in Grapefruit League games react to it, and how it fits in his fastball-heavy arsenal.

“Right now, it depends how it shows in the games during spring training and see where it’s going to be more efficient,” he said. “I’m still experimenting. It should be there. As of now, I’m still trying to get it where it should be.”

Pitching coach Drew French said Suárez began working on a slider as a way to improve his curveball — a pitch he began throwing more in the second half as hitters adjusted to his stuff.

“This was something that we actually explored a little bit with him last year during the season,” French said. “Quite frankly, it kind of became a curveball training tool for him. Something we’d use in bullpens, he would throw it in [his] throwing program and stuff, but we never deployed it in games.”

Thanks to his mechanics and extension in his delivery, Suárez has a plus four-seam fastball despite its average velocity of 94.3 mph. The pitch has a higher spin rate than most four-seamers, allowing Suárez to throw the pitch often at the top of the zone and get hitters to swing underneath it. Pair the high fastball with his cutter to right-handed hitters and his changeup to lefties, and it was a difficult combination to square up.

Suárez posted a 2.43 ERA through June as opposing batters hit .236 with a .647 OPS. But hitters started figuring him out in July, his numbers ballooned and he briefly lost his spot in the rotation. In four July starts, Suárez allowed 23 hits and 15 runs in 17 2/3 innings (7.64 ERA) as opponents hit .319 with a .929 OPS against him.

During that time, however, Suárez was working to use his curveball more against righties, rather than relying on his changeup, which is better versus lefties. By August, he gained more command and confidence in his curveball, and he sported a more balanced arsenal over the final two months of the season. He tossed three straight scoreless starts in August to bring his season total to eight — the second most in the AL and tied for the third most in Orioles history — and pitched to a 3.44 ERA over his final 10 starts.

In September, Suárez threw his fastball 44.5% of the time, while his three offspeed pitches (curveball, changeup and cutter) were all used between 18% and 20%. A slider could throw a wrinkle into his repertoire — and a wrench into how hitters game plan for him.

“He went to work this offseason, found a couple of external things that can lend itself to something that adds depth to his arsenal, which we know, especially over the last couple of years, has been a really popular idea in baseball,” French said, referencing the increased usage of slower sliders, also known as sweepers.

“I think he’s in as good of a spot as he’s been in his entire career right now,” the second-year pitching coach added.

Suárez doesn’t know exactly how the slider will be incorporated, but he’s mostly using it versus right-handed hitters. Sliders, especially slower ones, are more commonly used against same-handed batters.

“It looks good right now,” Suárez said. “The spin is good. That’s the first thing I’m focused on, the spin. Then I want to make sure I throw it the same way I throw the fastball, make sure I don’t change the arm angle.”

Manager Brandon Hyde said he’s “really impressed” with how Suárez looks this spring, and the seventh-year skipper doesn’t have concerns about the veteran’s ability to adjust. Perhaps that’s because he’s seen his slider.

“He’s throwing the ball really, really well,” Hyde said. “He’s a smart guy that’s been around, he’s pitched everywhere. Making adjustments and continuing to improve isn’t something that’s new for him. … He’s as ready to go as anybody out here right now.”

Suárez doesn’t have a clear path to a spot in the Orioles’ rotation if they stick with a five-man plan. Those spots are slated for Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Charlie Morton, Tomoyuki Sugano and Dean Kremer.

But Suárez is seen as a near-lock for at least a long relief spot in Baltimore’s bullpen, keeping him ready in case a starter gets hurt. The Orioles could also utilize a six-man rotation in the summer as the schedule provides fewer days off than early in the season.

That’s a much more secure position than Suárez found himself last spring as a nonroster invitee who emerged and was eventually called up in mid-April, never to be sent back to Triple-A. When asked for his thoughts about being a starter or a reliever, Suárez said he’s open to either role.

“For me, the mindset is the same as last year,” he said. “Be available for whatever they need.”

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