{"id":332591,"date":"2025-12-08T15:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/332591\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:23:07","slug":"diamondbacks-to-sign-michael-soroka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/332591\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks To Sign Michael Soroka"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Diamondbacks and free agent right-hander Michael Soroka<\/a> are in agreement on a one-year deal that will reportedly pay the ISE Baseball client a guaranteed $7.5MM. Soroka can tack on an additional $2MM worth of incentives. The deal is pending a physical.<\/p>\n

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Soroka, still just 28 years old, is already signing the second free-agent contract of his career. He inked a one-year, $9MM deal with the Nats last offseason after an uneven year with the White Sox, wherein he struggled immensely as a starting pitcher before posting huge numbers as a reliever down the stretch. Washington plugged Soroka back into a starting role in 2025, eventually flipping him to the Cubs at the trade deadline. Soroka posted a middling 4.52 ERA in 89 2\/3 innings (17 starts, six relief appearances) but continued to intrigue with sharp rate stats: 25.1% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate, 44.1% ground-ball rate.<\/p>\n

Arizona is in need of help both in the rotation and in the bullpen, so even though Soroka is bound for the starting staff, he could be a fallback in the bullpen if the initial plan doesn\u2019t work out. For now, he\u2019ll join the trio of Ryne Nelson<\/a>, Eduardo Rodriguez<\/a> and Brandon Pfaadt<\/a>\u00a0as one of manager Torey Lovullo\u2019s starters.<\/p>\n

It still wasn\u2019t that long ago that Soroka looked like one of the game\u2019s most promising young arms. The 2015 first-round pick ranked as one of baseball\u2019s top prospects prior to his debut with Atlanta, and the first two seasons of his career more than justified that billing. In 200 1\/3 innings from his late-2018 callup through the end of the 2019 season, Soroka pitched to a sparkling 2.79 earned run average. His 20% strikeout rate was below-average, but he compensated for that with an excellent 5.9% walk rate, a 50.2% grounder rate and plenty of weak contact.<\/p>\n

Injuries decimated the next several years of Soroka\u2019s career and eventually pushed him out of the Braves\u2019 plans. He\u2019s twice torn his Achilles tendon and also missed time due to multiple shoulder injuries and a biceps strain. Soroka hasn\u2019t reached even 100 innings in a major league season since that outstanding 2018-19 run; in fact, he\u2019s pitched only 215 1\/3 big league innings total since that time \u2014 just 15 more than he pitched in that initial MLB run.<\/p>\n

Soroka will be one of multiple additions in general manager Mike Hazen\u2019s rotation. The D-backs entered the offseason in dire need of pitching depth. Of the aforementioned trio of starters, only Nelson (3.39 ERA, 154 innings) posted quality bottom-line results last year. Both Rodriguez and Pfaadt posted ERAs north of 5.00, though each (Pfaadt in particular) was viewed more favorably by fielding-independent metrics.<\/p>\n

Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick has already indicated that payroll will decline after last year\u2019s mark topped $200MM for the first time in franchise history. However, he\u2019s also made clear that the team is fully intent on striving to contend despite that reduction. It\u2019s not clear exactly where the ultimate budget lies, but Hazen and his staff should have plenty of spending room even with the budget scaling down. The addition of Soroka pushes next year\u2019s projected payroll to just over $151MM, per RosterResource<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arizona has also been looking into a reunion<\/a> with righty Merrill Kelly<\/a>, whom they traded to the Rangers in July ahead of his free agent departure this offseason. There\u2019s mutual interest there, though Kelly\u2019s annual salary will likely more than double what Soroka just commanded. Pete Fairbanks<\/a> is a known target<\/a> on the bullpen side of things, though he\u2019s surely just one of many. The D-backs are also at least hearing out other clubs who inquire on star second baseman Ketel Marte<\/a>, though a trade is seen as unlikely, and they\u2019re listening to offers on lefty-swinging outfielders Alek Thomas<\/a> and Jake McCarthy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, it\u2019ll be a busy few days for the D-backs in Orlando at this week\u2019s Winter Meetings, though it\u2019s unlikely the check off every item on their to-do list before MLB\u2019s premier offseason event concludes.<\/p>\n

Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported<\/a> the one-year agreement between the two parties. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic first<\/a> reported<\/a> the salary terms, incentives and Soroka\u2019s role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Diamondbacks and free agent right-hander Michael Soroka are in agreement on a one-year deal that will reportedly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,146464,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-332591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-michael-soroka","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}