Nov 14: Soriano has cleared waivers and been returned to the Angels, per Jack Harris of the L.A. Times.
Nov 7: The Pirates announced that right-hander Jose Soriano has been designated for assignment. The move opens up a 40-man roster spot for infielder Diego Castillo, whose contract has been selected to the 40-man.
Soriano threw only 3 2/3 innings for Pittsburgh’s A-ball affiliate in Bradenton this season, as the 23-year-old had to undergo his second Tommy John surgery in as many seasons. Soriano first went under the knife in February 2020 when he was still a member of the Angels organization, but the Pirates rolled the dice and selected Soriano in last December’s Rule 5 draft.
Soriano’s latest surgery took place in mid-June, so considering the usual 13-15 month timeline for TJ recoveries and the fact that this is already Soriano’s second operation in such a brief period, it certainly doesn’t seem like he’ll see any action during the 2022 season. It’s a brutal outcome for a youngster who showed such intriguing promise when pitching in the Angels’ farm system, as Soriano drew plenty of attention thanks to his big fastball and strikeout numbers. Soriano has mostly worked as a starting pitcher, but he was seen as a potential power reliever or even a closer candidate thanks to his one-two punch of a fastball and curve, even if walks continued to be an issue.
Not to be confused with the veteran reliever of the same name, the Pirates’ Diego Castillo is a 24-year-old infielder who joined the organization from the Yankees this past July as part of the Clay Holmes trade. Castillo hadn’t hit much over his first four minor league seasons, but after the canceled 2020 minor league campaign, his bat took a big step forward in his return to action. Castillo hit .278/.355/.487 with 19 home runs in 440 total plate appearances in 2021, with those PA split over the Yankees’ Double-A team and the Pirates’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates.
Between this development at the plate and his ability to play second base, third base, and shortstop, Castillo has put himself on the radar as a candidate to reach the majors next season. As noted by Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Castillo would’ve been eligible for minor league free agency if the Pirates hadn’t put him on the 40-man roster.
Diego Castillo could end up being a really good get for the Pirates
Wow! I didn’t realize Castillo is so good and so near ready for the show. I guess that explains why they took Difo off of the 40-man.
Holmes was a real find for the Yanks.
Maybe maybe not. He had runs pretty close to what he did with NY even earlier last season. He also mixed some shorter stretches where he was blown up by the opposition. I hope for his sake that he did figure it out. Castillo looks like a find for the Bucs on their end of the deal and this could turn out to be a trade that benefits both. teams.
So does Soriano need to be offered back to the Angels?
I think since they designated him. He could be traded. If not he’s a free agent…not sure though
Rule 5 guys have to be on the active roster a certain amount of days to lose the status and gain their rights. They can trade him but I think (I may be wrong) that he will be offered back to LA if he clears waivers.
90 days on the mlb roster before you can be put on the IL and still be kept.
“90 Days on the Roster”
Humble Pie?
yes, if he clears waivers
I don’t think so because he lasted the year on the roster
I think that only the active 26 man roster time counts.
I was hoping Jose would get better and stick with the team. He had nasty movement on his pitches.
Lol
I’m no expert on this but I think that he has to pass through waivers first as any other team could take the place of the Pirates as the Rule 5 drafter and have to adhere to the same rules.If he passes waivers he has to be offered back to the Angels for half the purchase price.If they do not want him back I believe that he can be stashed in the minors in the Pirates organization until he becomes healthy.I believe that this happened to Tom this year in Pittsburgh until they released him.
Like Mendoza Line, I’ve been a fan since the Forbes Field days. Have to say this is a very intriguing time. Very interested to see if all of this rebuilding of the minor league system pays off in the next few years. Can only hope ownership doesn’t scuttle the whole process as they have in years past
I doubt that Nutting will scuttle anything.The Pirates have generally done a decent job of keeping their good players until they get older.I think that BC seems to be on top of the player drafting and development phases of his job.He will need to augment them with moderate free agents and good trades to establish a team like the Pirates had from 2013-2015 when they had the cumulative second best record in baseball.
He did fairly well with the lower level free agents this year.I am not convinced of his trading ability though.These small market teams generally go in three or four year alternating cycles,although the best run teams in player development seem to lessen the number and severity of the bad years.Being a ML GM is a tough job but I think that he has more support than you might realize,including financial support.I liked NH,and of course he gets run down a lot,but his leadership had become somewhat stagnant,and in retrospect,it probably was time for a change.Nutting is a good enough businessman to know that these minuscule attendance figures cannot go on indefinitely,so he will spend when he sees a much better product on the field.As much as he is concerned about the bottom line,I have to believe that he was elated during that three year period as anyone was,and wants to relive it again too.
Good points, but I think we have seen two different strategies.
The NH model was put together a mediocre cheap team, hope your draft picks work, and then hope to get some FA steals like Liriano and Burnett. This did work for a while. When it was time to spend a little moolah, BN got cheap (surprise, surprise) and they make an awful trade with the Mets (Niese/Walker). That was the beginning of the end.
BC model is much different. Basically, acknowledgement that you are not close, stock up on the minor leagues, get higher draft picks than was the case previous because you are so bad, and then build the team from the ground up. So far, so good IMO. Now, there will be a point where you have to add some decent veterans for leadership type roles when the team gets close or heaven forbid spend some cash. I don’t think that’s going to happen. They will always have a team that in the best case scenario will need to get hot in the playoffs.. They will never have an overwhelming favorite type of team like LA. I still think the future is bright though for the Pirates overall. I could actually see them being semi-competitive next season (low 70 wins) and wouldn’t be surprised if DS is gone if that’s not the case.
I agree with your first and last paragraphs,but think that you are too critical in the second.Nutting is a businessman who looks at the bottom line more than many owners,but he is willing to spend if they have a good team,but not crazy money like the Phillies’ owner.
Their model had been to put together a reasonably good team to have a chance at the playoffs every year.They signed the young players like Polanco,Tabata,McCutcheon,and Marte to extensions if they thought that their futures would be as good or better than their pasts.Then NH ended up trading even an icon like Cutch when they knew that they would not resign him.Walker was in the same boat and had rejected a three year deal earlier.The Niece trade was fine if they essentially were mailing the 2016 season in and they got a consistent #4 starter for someone who they were not going to sign.GM’s cannot be in love with someone just because they are a homer.Walker ended up getting $39 over the next three years which is basically what the Pirates had offered him.It was his choice not to sign with Pittsburgh,and he ended up only playing maybe 60% of the games for the Mets and Yankees.His back issues always affected his playing time and the amount that the Pirates were willing to pay.They were wise in not going overboard with Walker and his salary.Niece literally fell apart and no one saw that c9ming.
The segue into the current mode occurred in 2019 when they realized during their very poor second half that the farm system was no longer somewhat abundant and they were a fairly bad team.BC was hired because his strong suit seems to be in the drafting and developing young players.I would have hoped by now though that 2022 would be a clear turnaround point,but the lack of minor league ball in 2020 may have curtailed that by a year.There is no guarantee,however,that this rebuild will be successful.Hope springs eternal,but it is a mighty task to make a small market team into a WS contender.
Was typing a response similar to what you did to @Buccrazy and then thought to read you response to him. Thanks for the heavy lifting an I totally agree with you. Niese hurt his knee early in 2016 and that ended his career. The only plus to what BC has done with this rebuild is that he acquired though trade or by draft several quality players in several positions that give him more options that have chances to develop in those positions. Before, they maybe had 1`or two max viable prospects and if that 1 did not pan out, they were screwed. He now has several infielders and several catchers and several outfielders. Has some pitching now but not enough to use as trade bait. If enough prospects pan out he will be able to use some of the fielders and a catcher to trade for some pitching over the next couple of seasons. Fingers crossed on the development.
Go-You and I know as long time Pirates fans that we always have to have our fingers crossed.BC seems like he will do a better job than NH on the drafting and development.The Pirates philosophy precluded them from ever really getting too bad until the second half of 2019 when it was bad enough that they no longer had a choice as to how to proceed.I really do expect to see clear improvement this year even if they have to sign some mid level free agents to do so.We will see how good BC is at that although at least Anderson panned out well last year.His pitcher trades have been reasonable but the Marte and Bell returns were weak as far as I am concerned and he really did not have to trade either one of them except to save money.
I’d like to say Soriano will need a third TJS in 2023 after mismanagement by Joe Maddon but 2022 is his least season as a manager. Kinda doubt he will be working in a baseball uniform again after next season.
Hopefully Maddon will be gone in 2023. He’s horrible at managing pitchers. Even Rays and Cubs fans agree on that fact. He seems to leave pitchers in too long when they’re struggling and takes pitchers out too soon when they’re pitching great. He lost a lot of games this season with his poor managing.
Good news for Soriano is he got to collect a MLB paycheck for a full season.
Did the Pirates start Soriano’s rehab assignment too soon? Must have since he needed another Tommy John surgery. It’s really stupid that a team has to worry about losing a player who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. They should be able to keep them on the 60 day IL. The Angels never should have lost him. This is one part of the Rule 5 draft that needs to be changed. It takes a long time to recover from Tommy John surgery.
There is no IL during the off season, which is why they had him on the 40.
If PIT wanted to keep him then they would have left him on the 40. If they really want him back they can chose him again in the next rule 5. Plus LA paid $50k to take him back instead of letting PIT keep him.
PIT paid $100k to draft him, a years MLB minimum for him to be injured, then paid for the TJS. For all that they got a few innings of rehab and $50k back from LA.