The Pirates selected right-hander Jose Soriano out of the Angels organization with the top pick in last December’s Rule 5 Draft, knowing at the time he still required several months of rehab following 2020 Tommy John surgery. The hope was to get some innings out of Soriano at some point this summer, but Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomcyzk told reporters yesterday that Soriano has new damage in his pitching elbow (Twitter link via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Mike Persak). Another surgery is now possible.
It’s a discouraging outcome for the 22-year-old Soriano, who is now nearly 16 months removed from that 2020 Tommy John procedure. He’d progressed his rehab to the point where he’d been cleared to pitch in minor league games as a ramp-up to his MLB debut, but based on his results, it’s clear that something was amiss. Soriano appeared in two games, the first of which included three shutout innings with one hit, no walks and five punchouts. In his second outing, Soriano faced 10 batters but was clobbered for seven runs on five hits and three walks while only recording two outs.
[Related: 2020 Rule 5 Draft Results | April Update On Rule 5 Draftees]
Entering the season, Soriano was ranked as the Pirates’ No. 18 prospect at Baseball America, No. 22 at FanGraphs and No. 24 at MLB.com. He’s praised as a hard-throwing righty with potential closer upside thanks to an upper-90s heater that can touch triple digits and a power curveball. His 2019 season in A-ball showed off plenty of that upside (2.55 ERA, 26 percent strikeout rate, 52.8 percent grounder rate) but also underscored one of the most pressing red flags in the righty’s outlook (15 percent walk rate).
The new injury casts doubt on whether Soriano will pitch for the Pirates in 2021 — or at all. He’s already on the 60-day injured list, so the Bucs can keep him there until season’s end without any ramification, even if he undergoes another surgery. When the offseason rolls around, however, they’d need to determine whether they want to carry Soriano throughout the winter in hopes of getting some innings from him in 2022. Soriano would retain his Rule 5 status into next season, meaning he still couldn’t be optioned to the minors until spending at least 90 days on the active roster.
If at any point the Pirates decide to cut bait, Soriano would be placed on waivers before being offered back to the Angels, who would not need to carry him on the 40-man roster.
If the Halos let pitching go it’s damaged goods for sure
Pirates gambled & lost. They had the first pick & had all the time in the world to select a better player that could play this year. Akil Baddoo aside, there were other players they could have selected.
Pirates fans: I’m watching this afternoon’s game. Mitch Keller just got knocked out in third inning by Julio Urias’ two-run single. What’s your assessment of Mitch? By now, I thought he’d be showing a whole lot more than that 7.04 ERA. Is he fixable?
He’s waiting to be dealt to Tampa Bay. Then, he’ll turn it around.
Very original! I have not heard that line in , oh I don’t know, minutes.
Looking at his game-by-game now. Five good starts and six miserable ones (and one rough relief appearance).
Great stuff but maddeningly inconsistent and I’m not sure anyone knows why.
Be interesting to see how all these deadline deals shape up with all the foreign substance talk. I know I’d very cautious if I was a buying gm. Gauging the crackdown seriousness and monitoring spin rates.
Trading for players and then them getting suspended for cheating creates bad chemistry. As does trading for cheaters and then they quit cheating which ends up with them getting rocked is almost as bad too
Like a lot of young pitchers (still less than one full MLB season under his belt), he’s streaky and inconsistent. Some games he looks like a number MLB 2 starter, other games he looks like a number 2 AA starter. Give him some time.
At this point, the Pirates can afford to wait it out. Gotta be frustrating, though. Art-bats like the Urias one can potentially turn his season or at least the game around. I imagine there’s been an at-bat like that in most of his rough starts. Get that one guy out and it’s a different result. Even the great ones like Roy Halladay and Greg Maddux went through that early.
By the way, today is the 38th anniversary of Jim Fregosi’s last game as a Met, and we all know the story behind that. Nolan Ryan pitched a no-hitter the month before the Mets sold Fregosi to Texas and another one the month after Fregosi was gone.
Here’s a novel idea.Send him to AAA and make him prove himself there.Cahill is coming off the IR soon.Let Keller get some consistency there.
Bad offense and worse defense can’t be helping Keller’s numbers. However, he may be another of Pittsburgh’s big pitching prospects that pans out after leaving the team
@Rsox That is quite harsh thing to say at this time. Pirates have gone through a major overhaul from top to bottom. Keller is no different from any other young pitcher including Pedro Martinez, Chris Sale, and many others. Randy Johnson was horrible (watched him pitch for a very old minor league club called Jamestown Expos at the time) in his youth and took him a couple of years to put it together. Randy is one of the greatest pitchers to play the game. Nolan Ryan was ugly and couldn’t throw a strike for the life of him in his first 5-6 years. He later found some success but held true to having control issues even during his successful years.
Keller is still young and can flip the switch at any point from here and on out. Even if he does find himself a little bit while in Pittsburgh, his true potential won’t be in full effect until traded to another club. Shame that us Pirates fan won’t see the excellence of these pitchers while in their prime
2 words—sports psychologist
I was honestly upset to lose him via Rule V. The kid has promise but just needs time. I wonder if the Pirates accelerated his rehab schedule due to the Rule V roster requirements.
He was more than 15 months removed from TJS when he got back into a game. I don’t think the Pirates, or any other team, would rush the issue to try to fulfill the Rule 5 requirement in one season. If they were that concerned about it possibly being spread over two seasons, they wouldn’t have taken a Tommy John rehabber.
Not necessarily bad news. Atleast he’s almost certain now to stay w club
The way this is written is polishing a turd. If he was in still angels org the picture wouldn’t be so rosey in terms of the upside. Funny how biased this website is
What are you talking about? Are you insinuating this page is anti Angels? Take a hike man.
They are. Read any post about there prospects in the org and they point out all flaws with little upside. They are deemed as “not good” as soon as they are on another team “high level prospect”
Soriano sucks, thats why he was rule 5. Keep chiming in though maybe something will stick eventually
At least the Angels can take solace in the fact that Soriano was broken when he went to Pittsburgh and stayed broken.
You know you are a diehard baseball fan when you take time out of your day to read an article about an injured, Rule-5 pitcher from the Pittsburg Pirates and then take even more time to comment on it.
DM- If one is a current fan of the Pirates any news is worth commenting on.Not much good news at this point.
Hopefully this dude can get over this setback and rebound to be a solid major leaguer.
Pirates carrying him isn’t a bad thing. he doesn’t count against the 40man while on the DL. even if the pirates were contending waiting on him to get to a full recovery doesn’t hurt..
Once he is off the DL then they might have to make decisions with the roster
Of course the team just might want to move on but personally i’d wait. clearly has some stuff when he was healthy.
The Pirates went down this road with Burdi.
Once these guys start having numerous serious arm problems they are like an automobile that has been in a serious accident.It is never quite the same.They may or may not have the stuff from before,and they are a ticking time bomb regarding future problems.
Keeping him will be decided after the season when the 40 man starts getting full of decent players.
In many ways it is unfair but serious injuries have always been part of the sport and can wreck a career very quickly.
Burdi was a beast when healthy those handful of games. just nasty stuff. he makes a full recovery and stays healthy this guy could very well be the best closer in the game.
I agree Joe but he is a gigantic IF now.
I usually do not get too excited,and his Pirate career was extremely short,but he is the type of pitcher that could have made Rivero seem like a mediocre relief pitcher.
GM’s cannot live with the “IF’s” for a long time though.
agreed, Ben has a little wiggle room right now since some of the roster is just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks
Art needs to look back when we won the division 5 years in a row. We had pitching. He passed on too many pitchers because he thought it was too big a risk. We have a couple guys but we do need a number one. I’m not sure who is available now. If we could get someone and the bull pin can come together we can make a run. We have enough hitting and we can’t get rid of Adell.
Akil Baddoo would have been a great pick. He went #2 to the tigers and is playing decently at CF. Pirates definitely need CF help. Especially with Swaggerty got hurt and is out for the season.