BREAKING: Blue Jays Acquire José Soriano From Angels

Quote

One of the hardest-throwing starters in the game, Soriano also gets tons of ground balls, because that triple-digit heater (the main one, anyway) is a very heavy sinker. He occasionally shows command of a plus splitter and a plus knuckle-curve, which allows him to strike out hitters at a healthy clip, in addition to the grounders and the sheer power of his profile. That’s the good news. The bad news is, he’s going to walk people, and you can’t be sure how well he’ll hold up to his current workload. He threw 169 innings last season, but that more than doubled his career total, and he’s on pace for over 180 in 2026. He started the season like gangbusters but has struggled of late. The list of guys with a higher ceiling who might be dealt this summer is very short. The list of guys with a better chance of being useful for a pennant contender is longer.

Over the last three years, Soriano owns a 3.73 ERA and 4.15 xERA in 405 innings pitched. He has been consistently successful – I'd argue he's already the Blue Jays' No. 2 starter – and he offers an intriguing project to Pete Walker and company. The righty has become a more complete pitcher this year by sacrificing some groundballs for more swing-and-miss. The result? The best season of his career. If he takes another step forward in 2027, the Blue Jays won't miss Gausman at all. (I mean, from a production standpoint. Emotionally, I'm a wreck, and I'm sure the rest of the team is too.)

Obviously, the return for Soriano was substantial. It had to be. When I considered Soriano as a trade target for Toronto last month, I wondered if the Angels would "only give him up for a price higher than the Jays might be willing to pay." 

The price was indeed high, but it turns out the Blue Jays were willing to pay it. Nimmala was Jays Centre's No. 3 prospect. Some sources viewed him as the most promising minor leaguer in the organization. In Baseball America's midseason update to their top 100 list, they had Nimmala as the No. 39 prospect in the sport. Aram Leighton of Just Baseball had Nimmala at No. 27 on his most recent top 100 list.

Micheletti and Rivero aren't highly-ranked prospects, but both are having good seasons. Nimmala is the prize of L.A.'s return, but it speaks to Soriano's high trade value that Nimmala alone wasn't enough.

Jays Centre's Matthew Creally came up with a Soriano mock trade recently that would have sent Nolan Perry, Gage Stanifer, and Yohendrick Piñango to the Angels. Perry's stock is rising fast, while Stanifer made a name for himself last season. Neither has Nimmala's ceiling, but at least the Jays didn't have to give up two of their top 10 prospects in this deal.   

Spending any serious prospect capital on a rental would have been foolish for a 52-60 Blue Jays team. So would failing to entertain offers for their own rentals. However, the Blue Jays are surely planning to contend in 2027, and they'll need talented starting pitchers to do so. Even if they miss the playoffs this year (and let's face it, they probably will), trading for Soriano will still have made sense. As a bonus, this deal helps them keep their slim postseason hopes from burning out completely.

The way I see it, Atkins absolutely made the right call. The Blue Jays earned so much goodwill across Canada with their World Series run last fall. You don't need to look any further than the soaring ticket prices or Ernie Clement's All-Star start for proof of how excited fans in Toronto and across Canada are about baseball right now. The Blue Jays need to do whatever they can to hold on to that. And that's what they did.