José Soriano to make Blue Jays debut on Friday

Soriano struck out seven but posted his worst ratios since joining the Blue Jays. In his fourth start with his new team, constant traffic was an issue despite New York missing Aaron Judge and struggling lately. It might take a full offseason with the organization for any arsenal changes or mechanical plans to take shape. Soriano will draw the Mariners at home next time out.

Soriano gave up nine hits, walked none and struck out two. He improved to 10-6 with the win. Soriano was able to get by while allowing nine hits because all of the hits were singles, he didn’t walk a single batter and he was able to pitch out of jams. He has a 3.23 ERA. Soriano is lined up to face the Yankees on the road on Sunday.

Soriano gave up four hits, walked two and struck out four. The 27-year-old right-hander had a 1.66 ERA in his first nine starts of the year, but has a 4.21 ERA in 15 starts since then. Toronto thinks they can unlock more from Soriano and the results have been pretty good as he’s allowed two earned runs in 10 2/3 innings in his first two starts for the Blue Jays. Soriano is lined up to face the Rays on the road next week.

Those are some interesting names to hear that the Twins were in trade deadline discussions for because the only starting pitcher they wound up acquiring was Dean Kremer. It’s unclear if the Twins balked at the Angels’ asking price or if the Twins were interested in other starting pitchers across the league, but they seemed to want to take a big swing with their rotation, and it just didn’t pan out.

The 27-year-old right-hander also issued three walks while striking out three batters in the contest. The Phillies pushed a run across on an error by Jesus Sanchez in the second inning, then Bryce Harper added an RBI single in the third. Soriano wasn’t very economical though and needed 94 pitches (62 strikes) to record 14 outs. He got 18 swings and misses on the night — 12 of those on his knuckle curve — while posting a solid CSW of 31 percent. He’ll try to get back in the win column as he brings a 3.24 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and a 130/60 K/BB ratio (127 2/3 innings) into Thursday’s showdown against the Red Sox.

The decision to pitch Taillon in Houston bumps Dylan Cease back to Thursday’s series opener against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. It’ll be José Soriano making his Toronto debut on Friday as they transition to a six-man rotation on a temporary basis.

Soriano will bring a 3.29 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and 25 percent strikeout rate to the Blue Jays rotation for the next two-plus seasons. While we wouldn’t expect major changes for him in 2026, this is a nice landing spot for him going forward because the Blue Jays have become a solid pitching development organization that should get the most out of his plus secondaries but inconsistent fastballs. Soriano was originally scheduled to start on Tuesday for the Angels, but we would imagine the Blue Jays would want to give him a little more time with his new team before putting him out on the mound.

This is an interesting pivot for the Blue Jays after trading Kevin Gausman to the Cubs yesterday. Toronto still clearly views itself as a contender in 2027 and beyond, so they replace Gausman with Soriano, who is under team control for two more seasons after this one. Soriano has regressed since his hot start to the season, and his reliance on a mediocre four-seam fastball led to far too many home runs; however, he has a good collection of secondary pitches, and this is a Toronto organization that has gotten the best production out of Dylan Cease by tweaking his changeup. This is a nice landing spot for Soriano, but the Angels get a solid return here, headlined by Arjun Nimalla, a 20-year-old shortstop who is the 43rd-ranked prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.

Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak said in a team statement that Soriano won’t pitch this weekend due to the uncertainty of the next 48 hours leading up to Monday’s trade deadline. That doesn’t mean that a trade is imminent, but the club doesn’t want to take any chances. The 27-year-old righty has been the subject of plenty of trade rumors recently and it appears that Los Angeles will consider moving him for the right price. He’s in the midst of the strongest season of his career with a solid 3.29 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 127/57 K/BB ratio across 123 innings over 22 starts.

The revelation comes as a bit of a surprise as the Angels appear to be more willing to move on from someone like Neto, who was viewed as one of their more long-term building blocks. There are plenty of teams that could use a shortstop, which is probably why Los Angeles interim general manager John Mozeliak is going to entertain overtures. It doesn’t sound like anything is imminent, but the Angels could be headed for more of a full-scale teardown than many anticipated.