The Cubs are short on pitching help, and that reality is going to keep every option on the table once free agency opens. That includes some names that might make the front office think twice, then think again. Michael Soroka is one of them.
Chicago already took its shot on Soroka at the 2025 trade deadline, and it didn’t take long for that move to get messy. His velocity had already dipped over his last three starts with the Washington Nationals before the deal, and just two innings into his Cubs debut, a shoulder injury knocked him out.
Soroka did return in September and worked out of the bullpen, where he put together a 1.08 ERA in six appearances. Even so, the whole episode was hard to separate from the sense that the Cubs’ pretrade evaluation had gone badly wrong.
Now Soroka is back on the market discussion again after a season with the Arizona Diamondbacks that showed why teams keep circling his name. He signed a one-year deal there last offseason and delivered a 3.41 ERA over 22 appearances, while striking out more than 24% of the hitters he faced. He also has a mutual option for 2027, but after that kind of year, it would appear likely he reaches free agency.
That sets up the question: should the Cubs go back there?
The answer is hard no. There is a reason Soroka keeps raising eyebrows, and it is the same reason he remains a risky bet.
Health has followed him like a shadow, and even this past season he managed only 116 innings. It was just the second time in his career he got over the 100-inning mark in a season.
Arizona had to sideline him for multiple weeks twice, once because of a glute injury and once due to shoulder inflammation. The shoulder issue is the part that really hangs over this decision, because the MRI was clean, yet the concern never really goes away. That’s the danger with Soroka: the warning signs have a way of showing up before the bigger problem does.
The Cubs already learned that lesson once. There’s no reason to run it back.
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