The Angels’ weekend move with José Soriano sent a loud signal before the trade deadline ever arrived. Saturday’s announcement that Soriano was being scratched from his scheduled start, with Brent Suter set to handle a bullpen game instead, was tied directly to the uncertainty hanging over the next 48 hours.
Interim general manager John Mozeliak made that part plain in his statement:
“Today, José Soriano will not make his scheduled start. With the trade deadline on Monday and the uncertainty of the next 48 hours, we decided to take a prudent approach and see where these next few days lead us.”
That kind of public admission is not how the Angels have usually operated. In the past, owner Arte Moreno has generally resisted moving players who still had multiple years of club control, and the organization has mostly limited itself to dealing players on expiring contracts rather than entertaining anything that looks like a rebuild.
This deadline has felt different, though. Reports have pointed to a more open stance on Soriano, lefty Reid Detmers and shortstop Zach Neto, and Mozeliak already sent right-hander Chase Silseth and catcher Logan O’Hoppe to the Rangers in an intra-division deal.
Soriano, 27, is exactly the sort of pitcher clubs dream about chasing in July. He’s making just $2.9MM this season and remains under control through 2028, which only adds to the appeal of a right-hander who has developed into a true playoff-caliber starter.
He was already a solid arm in 2024-25, working 282 innings with a 3.93 ERA, a 20.9 K% and a 10.3 BB%. This season, he has taken another step. His early run was absurdly dominant - one earned run in his first 37 2/3 innings - and even after cooling off, he still carries a 3.29 ERA, a 24.9% strikeout rate and a 51.9% ground-ball rate.
The one area that still leaves room for improvement is the walk rate, which sits at 11.2%. But the raw stuff is what makes Soriano so attractive. He’s averaging 97.2 mph on his four-seamer and 96.4 mph on his sinker, a power mix that gives him a profile very few starters can match.
There’s also been a notable change in how he’s being used. Soriano used to lean almost entirely on that sinker, but this year the sinker and four-seamer are being thrown at nearly the same rate.
That shift has brought his ground-ball rate down from 63.1% in 2024-25, but it has also helped push his strikeout numbers up. A 13% swinging-strike rate and 31.8% opponents’ chase rate suggest there may still be more strikeouts ahead, and a club with better infield defense than the Angels could squeeze even more out of him.
That combination of velocity, strikeouts, ground balls, salary and control should make Soriano one of the hottest names on the board. He belongs near the top of the market with Detmers, and if the Angels decide to move both arms - with Neto in the mix too - the return could be massive. The kind of prospect package that comes back would go a long way toward reshaping a farm system that has too often ranked near the bottom of the sport.
Mozeliak’s decision to skip Soriano’s start does not guarantee a deal. With two seasons of control left, the Angels do not have to force anything.
If the offers don’t match the asking price, they can keep him and revisit the conversation in the offseason. Even then, teams would still be lining up to get two years of Soriano, unless something catastrophic happens over the final two months.
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Zach Neto Trade Buzz Puts The Angels Infield Future In Focus
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What sharpened the speculation was a small but notable development on the other side, where top Red Sox prospect Franklin Arias was scratched from his Triple-A start. It is the sort of move that can send a rumor mill into overdrive, especially when the Angels are looking at ways to shape their future in the middle of the diamond, but for now it remains only that - talk, not a completed trade. [Read more 🡒]