The Angels are rumored to be open to moving players of value and doing some rebuilding so how does a starting pitcher whose fastball averages 97 mph sound to you?
You can view our larger trade deadline piece here as we discuss a wider pool of options the Guardians may consider. To make my position clear, I expect the Guardians to make smaller moves, like trading Bo Naylor and getting a castoff/undervalued reliever. But, in the interest of exploring potential larger moves, we are doing a series looking
at some of those bigger names. So far, we have discussed Spencer Steer, Luis Arraez, Shea Langeliers, Taylor Ward, Heliot Ramos, Jo Adell and Ty France. Although the Guardians’ greatest need is hitting, the market is aflush with starting pitching so it may make sense for the Guardians to see if they can find a good value there, as we wrote here.
Jose Soriano is a 27 year-old pitcher under team control through 2028. He has a career 3.72 ERA and 3.79 FIP and has a 9.3/4.2 K/BB/9 this year getting groundballs at well north of a 50% rate for his career. He’s getting the best extension of his career in a 78th percentile rate. The Angels are a generally terrible organization for pitchers so the Guardians should be able to help the still young Soriano improve if they were to acquire him.
The issue with acquiring any player under control beyond 2026 is that a team risks paying for the value that the player might produce in 2027 when there could very well be half a season or less of games. Will the Guardians be willing to take that kind of risk? I argue they should because moving Slade Cecconi to the pen and upgrading his rotation spot with a Soriano puts this rotation in a top 5 in MLB territory. Yes, additional help is still needed offensively, but the Guardians have the young talent the Angels need and Soriano has a chance to help the Guardians in three playoff runs.
For a player of Soriano’s talent and control, the Guardians should be willing to give up one of the Braylon Doughty, Angel Genao, Ralphy Velazquez, Cooper Ingle and Juneiker Caceres bunch. Caceres and Velazquez would be the two I most want to hang on to of the bunch, but I believe this move is worth one of the other three plus two other solid prospects not in this group. For the sake of argument, say Ingle, Welbyn Francisca and Justin Campbell.
The pitching staff begins to look like:
1. Williams, 2. Messick, 3. Soriano, 4. Bibee, and 5. Cantillo
Pen: Smith, Holderman, Gaddis, Sabrowski, Aleman, Espino, Herrin and Cecconi.
Where will we score enough runs to win games even 1-0? I would like to see the team make this deal AND get Jo Adell and Ty France. Gotta rely on growth from young players and a return to form for Jose Ramirez, but that’s a pitching staff built for a real run.
Let us know what you think about a potential Soriano trade in the comments below!
