The Toronto Blue Jays kept moving Monday, and this time the prize was a proven arm with top-end upside.
After dealing Kevin Gausman to the Chicago Cubs a day earlier, Toronto turned around and landed right-hander José Soriano from the Los Angeles Angels. To get him, the Jays sent top prospect Arjun Nimmala, minor league outfielder Eddie Micheletti Jr. and minor league right-hander Angel Rivero to Los Angeles.
That gave Toronto the kind of deadline balance it was chasing: part selling, part adding for the long term, all before Monday’s 6 p.m. ET cutoff. The club got both pieces of the plan done with plenty of time left on the clock.
Soriano is the immediate answer to the Gausman departure, and maybe more. He carries a 3.73 ERA in 75 games, 73 of them starts, since the start of 2024.
He’s also under contract for two more seasons beyond 2026, which gives Toronto a rotation piece it can count on for the stretch ahead. The expectation is that he’ll slot in alongside Dylan Cease near the top of the staff.
The 27-year-old’s season has been a study in extremes. For the first month, he looked like the best pitcher in baseball, putting up an 0.24 ERA over 37 2/3 innings.
During that stretch, he struck out 43 and allowed only 31 baserunners. Then came a rougher run: the next 12 starts brought a 5.34 ERA, along with 36 walks in 62 1/3 innings.
Lately, though, he’s started to settle in. In July, Soriano gave up seven earned runs across four starts and punched out 16 batters in 23 innings.
His raw stuff is exactly why he drew so much interest around the deadline. The issue has always been command.
Soriano leads the American League with 57 walks, and he has walked more than 3.5 batters per nine innings in each of the last three seasons. Toronto is betting on its track record with high-powered arms, especially after getting Cy Young Award-caliber work from Cease this year and Robbie Ray in 2021.
The need was there, too. Looking ahead to next season, Toronto had only Cease, Cody Ponce and Trey Yesavage projected for the starting staff. General manager Ross Atkins, as he usually does, got part of that work out of the way early.
For the Angels, the return centers on Nimmala, a name that has carried real weight in prospect circles. Keith Law ranked him No. 42 in his recent The Athletic list.
Toronto selected Nimmala with the No. 20 pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, and he has already reached Double A at 20 years old, nearly four years younger than the average player at that level. He has also shown the defensive ability to handle shortstop over the long haul.
The Blue Jays were willing to move him because they felt they could afford it, especially with another recent first-round shortstop in JoJo Parker giving the organization some comfort in that area.
In Other News...
Blue Jays Just Made A Deadline Bet Fans Will Debate For Years
The Blue Jays took a significant swing at the deadline, adding a controllable arm to a rotation that had been a talking point for most of the season. Torontos front office has made it clear it wanted pitching help without sacrificing long-term flexibility, and this deal fit that mold in a way that should spark plenty of debate among fans as the organization tries to thread the needle between winning now and keeping the pipeline alive.
For the Angels, the return underscored a different kind of urgency, one centered on young position-player talent and a longer view of the roster. Toronto paid a real price to get the deal done, and whenever a team sends out a top prospect in a move like this, the aftermath tends to linger well beyond the deadline. The question now is whether the Blue Jays got the kind of rotation help they needed badly enough to justify parting with that sort of future value. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Deadline Selloff Just Took A Bigger Turn Than Expected
Torontos deadline selloff keeps taking on a different shape, and the latest move only underscores how committed the Blue Jays are to the rebuild. Established pieces are still in play as the club shifts toward the future, and the front office has shown a willingness to move players who had been part of the recent core rather than simply trimming around the edges.
One of the most notable names in that churn was on the move to a contender, with Houston looking to shore up its outfield for a playoff push. The appeal is obvious from the Astros side, given the defensive value and October background attached to the player they added, while for Toronto it marks another step in a deadline that has already gone farther than many around the team expected. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Just Made A Kevin Gausman Deadline Decision Fans Will Judge
With the MLB trade deadline closing in, the Blue Jays made a move that underscored how aggressively they were willing to reshape their roster. Kevin Gausman is headed to the Cubs, a team that has been scrambling for rotation help amid injuries, and Toronto is taking a step that will be debated heavily by fans who have watched him anchor the staff.
The return gives Toronto a pair of young pieces to work with in outfielder Brett Bateman and infielder Ty Southisene, a sign the front office is balancing present needs against future value. For a club trying to thread that needle in a deadline market that rewards urgency, this is the kind of decision that can look smart in one light and hard to stomach in another, depending on what comes next. [Read more 🡒]