A few weeks after sending Jose Soriano to Toronto, the Angels have found the kind of return that can quiet a whole lot of second-guessing. Arjun Nimmala has been that player.
The deadline deal came with the usual knot of feelings. Soriano was 27, throwing hard, and still under team control through 2026.
He looked like a pitcher on the rise. At the same time, Nimmala carried the kind of prospect label that can tilt a trade in a hurry, even if the breakout had been a little slower to arrive since the first-round pick in 2023 entered pro ball.
Now the early verdict is hard to miss. Nimmala has been the best player in the deal, and it isn’t especially close.
He’s turned Rocket City into must-watch territory, and his bat has made the trade look cleaner by the week. In his first exposure to Double-A with Toronto, the 20-year-old hit .279/.355/.451. After landing with the Angels in the Southern League, he went even louder, batting .260/.389/.577 in 126 plate appearances.
The finish to his regular season only pushed the excitement higher. Nimmala closed with two hits in each of his final five games, piling up 10 hits in 24 at-bats with four doubles and four homers.
On Thursday night, he delivered his first career multi-homer game. Add in three more home runs from earlier in that final stretch, and he finished with seven in September across just 11 games.
His manager said it plainly: “The ball jumps off Nimmala's bat, and it’s to all fields. He’s shown he can hit the ball the other way and hit it hard.”
That’s the appeal. The bat plays everywhere, and the power shows up in a hurry. It’s a big reason people are already eager to see how quickly he might force his way onto a bigger stage.
When the Angels got him, there was even talk that he could head to the Arizona Fall League. Jonathan Mayo suggested that a strong AFL showing could put him on the radar for a big league look as soon as next season. For a player his age with this little minor league mileage, that would be aggressive - but the kind of thought process that starts to surface when tools keep showing up in games.
Soriano, meanwhile, has been merely solid in Toronto. In seven starts, he has a 4.05 ERA across 40 innings and a 4.33 FIP. That’s respectable, but it’s also a step back from what he had been doing in Anaheim and from the version of him that made the Blue Jays so interested in the first place.
Soriano acknowledged the move was tough, saying how long he had been with the organization, though he also said he was excited to join a contender. Toronto’s brass believed in the raw material. Ross Atkins pointed to the stuff, and John Schneider emphasized the need for more consistent strike-throwing.
That work still has time to happen. Soriano has two years of control after this season, and the offseason may be the more natural place for that development to take hold.
Nimmala, for his part, is still in Double-A, which means the finish line is nowhere close. Prospects stall.
Pitchers adjust. There’s a lot left to play out.
But right now, in September, the Angels are absolutely winning this trade. They wanted a shortstop who could hit and drive the ball, and Nimmala has delivered exactly that. Even if Soriano eventually turns into the pitcher Toronto hoped for, Nimmala has already done enough to make this look like a strong deal for the Angels.
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