The Nationals and Cardinals announced a one-for-one swap of righty relievers. St. Louis acquires George Soriano while Washington picks up Andre Granillo. Washington placed starter Trevor Williams on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. The Nationals had designated Soriano for assignment last week when they claimed lefty Ken Waldichuk off waivers, so they needed to open a 40-man spot for Granillo.
Soriano will hopefully find some certainty after a hectic offseason. This is the fourth time he has changed organizations since November. The 26-year-old had spent his entire career with the Marlins until they placed him on waivers at the beginning of the offseason. He landed with Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington via successive waiver claims and designations.
A veteran of parts of three seasons, Soriano has an earned run average just under 6.00 over 118 big league innings. He has a league average 22% strikeout rate against a moderately concerning 10.3% walk percentage. The biggest issue is that he has been very homer-prone, surrendering 1.75 longballs per nine innings. Soriano works in the 95-96 mph range with his sinker and four-seam fastball while using a slider and changeup fairly frequently. He’s out of minor league options and either needs to break camp or be sent back into DFA limbo.
It’s a good sign for Soriano’s chances of sticking on a roster that St. Louis parted with an MLB reliever to jump the waiver order. Granillo, 25, is a former 14th-round draft choice who was called up for the first time last June. He was up and down from Triple-A Memphis for the rest of the season. Granillo got into 14 MLB games, posting a 4.71 ERA through his first 21 innings. He has posted high strikeout and walk rates throughout his minor league career but had more of a pitch-to-contact approach in his limited big league work.
Granillo leans most heavily on his slider while sitting 94-95 with the fastball. He sporadically mixes a changeup but is mostly a two-pitch reliever. He’s coming off an excellent season at Triple-A Memphis, where he turned in a 1.29 ERA with a 36% strikeout rate and a career-low 8.7% walk percentage across 42 innings. He still has a pair of minor league options remaining.
It’s surprising that the Cardinals parted with Granillo for a pitcher who was waived three times in an offseason. They’re evidently not bullish on Granillo’s chances of translating his Triple-A production into success at the highest level. It’s also worth noting that they never had an opportunity to grab Soriano off waivers. Offseason waiver priority is in inverse order of last season’s record, and St. Louis had a higher win percentage than each of Baltimore, Atlanta, or Washington did. The Cardinals and Nats each have plenty of opportunities in a wide open bullpen.
Williams’ IL move is a formality. He underwent an internal brace surgery to repair the UCL in his elbow last July. That’s a year-long recovery process. He’ll aim for a return sometime after the All-Star Break.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the trade shortly before the announcements.
Good luck in St Loouis Jorge
George has been moving everywhere this offseason, a hot commodity of the DFA market
FIP of over 6.00 the past 2 seasons. What are we doing here, Cards?
My guess is the Cards don’t give a flip about fip.
Another “we just need bodies in camp” move
Well, no. It was a 1-1 swap
I guess Chaim knows something in Soriano I’m not seeing. Granillo looked great last year at Memphis. Not terrible in St Louis. Granillo seems to have struggled last few years
Just following the organization’s lead to get the #1 overall pick. Winning is not an option here.
Not Granillo Soriano has struggled badly last couple years
He throws 100 with movement, that excites their new staff on the development/coaching side.
I imagine they realized that they had 15 other arms that look like Granillo, so this is their gamble.
Yep. One team wants the greater velo. The other team wants a guy with options.
Nationals can just play the game of claim everyone, try to get a trade out of them and worst case scenario the guy goes back to the wire
they must think little of granillo. they had a good chance of getting this guy on waivers.
Cheap for cheap. Definitely fits tightwad owner, Billionaire Bill DeWallet’s, budget..
Didn’t teams used to have to wait until Opening Day before they could use the 60 day injured list? or am I remembering incorrectly?
I am pretty sure once pitchers and catchers report to spring training the 60 day IL opens.
I liked Granillo, and he had an excellent showing in AAA this year. I remember they were pretty high on him in Spring 2024 too, one of the first guys to face live hitters. Hope they’re somehow able to corral Soriano and at least get positive production out of him.
The STL has been a mess. I will give Bloom plenty of leeway. It would be ridiculous to spend millions on free agents until the entire system is fixed. When they were competitive for 15 years they literally just kept sending up players ( other teams called it devils magic ). It just shows you how quick a team can loose it when they take their eye off the ball.
What a strange trade. I had Granillo making the team if Matt Pushard couldn’t make it with the club all year and had to go back to his original team.
I’m confused. Hope this gamble doesn’t flop.