The Toronto Blue Jays on Monday acquired right-handed starter José Soriano from the Los Angeles Angels, immediately replacing the vacancy created when they traded Kevin Gausman to the Chicago Cubs a day earlier. In exchange for one of the most intriguing remaining arms still available, they sent top prospect Arjun Nimmala as well as Eddie Micheletti and Angel Rivero to Los Angeles.
The Jays hoped to pair selling with some sort of long-term buying before Monday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline. They accomplished with nearly nine hours to spare.
Soriano is a plug-and-play replacement for Gausman, if not an upgrade. He has a 3.73 ERA across 75 games (73 starts) since the start of 2024. He’s under contract for two seasons beyond 2026 and should join Dylan Cease at the top of Toronto’s rotation.
Soriano, 27, looked like the best pitcher in baseball through the first month of this year, with an 0.24 ERA over 37 2/3 innings. He also had 43 strikeouts and allowed only 31 base runners. The next 12 starts showed his inconsistency, as he posted a 5.34 ERA while issuing 39 free bases in 62 1/3 innings.
Still, he began to right the ship in July, holding opponents to seven earned runs in four starts and striking out 16 batters across 23 innings.
Soriano’s pure stuff made him one of the most sought arms in this trade deadline cycle. His biggest flaw is a lack of command. He currently leads the American League in free passes with 57 and has walked over 3.5 batters per nine in each of his last three seasons. The Jays, though, have had success with high-octane arms, getting Cy Young Award-calibre seasons out of Cease this year and Robbie Ray in 2021.
The Jays needed to make pitching moves at some point, with just Cease, Cody Ponce and Trey Yesavage projected for the starting staff next year. As he often does, general manager Ross Atkins got some of that work done early.
The Angels once let Soriano walk for nothing — taken as the No. 1 selection in the Rule 5 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates ahead of the 2021 season. They got back Nimmala, the No. 42 prospect on Keith Law’s recent rankings for The Athletic, and two young, lower-end prospects.
Nimmala, the No. 20 pick in the 2023 draft, has reached Double A, where he has an .806 OPS as a 20-year-old, nearly four years younger than average. Nimmala has the defensive capability to man shortstop for the long-term, but with the success of JoJo Parker, another of Toronto’s recent first-round shortstops, the Jays could afford to move him for a clear rotation upgrade.
