The first significant move by the D-backs dropped this morning. Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers were first to report that the Arizona Diamondbacks have filled one of the holes in their rotation by signing Michael Soroka to a one-year deal. It’s worth $7.5 million, but there are incentives which could potentially add another $2 million to the price. He started last year off in the Nationals rotation, before moving to the Cubs in a deal at the trade deadline: he pitched mostly out of the bullpen there.
All told, he had a 4.52 ERA, but the peripherals suggest he was a little unlucky to have that, with a FIP of 4.23, xFIP of 4.21, and an xERA all the way down at 3.45.
He’ll likely slot in behind the existing members of the D-backs rotation, which currently looks like Ryne Nelson, Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt, Soroka and the crafty veteran, Toby Announced. It’s not exactly a move that will have Arizona fans dancing in the streets, but it is a necessary one: someone has to make those starts. One thing to note though is Soroka does have a bit of a track record of injuries. In particular, he tore an Achilles tendon in August 2020, necessitating surgery. He didn’t take a major-league mound again until May 2023. He also had two spells on the IL this year, with a bicep and shoulder strain.
The Achilles injury derailed a career which had looked very promising. In his rookie campaign of 2019, Soroka had a 2.68 ERA over 29 games for Atlanta, being worth 6.0 bWAR. That got him an All-Star selection, and he finished runner-up in that season’s Rookie of the Year voting, to some guy called “Pete Alonso”. Whatever happened to him? Anyway, after returning, Soroka initially struggled, and in 2024 achieved the remarkable feat of going 0-10 for the White Sox. That made him the first pitcher since Terry Felton in 1982 to have double-digit losses without a single victory. He didn’t actually pitch that badly, with an 87 ERA+.
Soroka also led the National League in hit batters last season, with fifteen. That’s probably a bit of an aberration, since it is more than twice as many as he has had in any other campaign. I wonder if it’s significant that the 28-year-old was signed to a fixed one-year deal by the Diamondbacks. While other teams have not apparently been concerned about the possibility of a lockout in 2027, it will be interesting to see if this is a trend the team follows with any other signings this winter. That money will obviously increase the D-backs’ payroll for 2026 which, per Jack, means they have “somewhere between $20-$30 million left” to work with this off-season,
