Angels Scratch José Soriano From Scheduled Start

The Angels announced Saturday that they’ve scratched right-hander José Soriano from his scheduled start. Brent Suter will start a bullpen game in his place. Interim general manager John Mozeliak took the uncommon step of publicly acknowledging that the decision is related to the trade deadline, issuing the following statement:

“Today, José Soriano will not make his scheduled start. With the trade deadline on Monday and the uncertainty of the next 48 hours, we decided to take a prudent approach and see where these next few days lead us.”

Mozeliak’s announcement is the clearest indicator yet that the Angels are approaching this deadline far differently than in the past, when owner Arte Moreno has routinely balked at the idea of dealing away players with multiple years of club control remaining. The Halos have typically only shipped out players on expiring contracts, resisting any semblance of a rebuild, but reports throughout deadline season have suggested they’ll be more open-minded this time around on names like Soriano, lefty Reid Detmers and shortstop Zach Neto. Mozeliak already traded away righty Chase Silseth and catcher Logan O’Hoppe in an intra-division deal with the Rangers.

Soriano, 27, should be one of the most highly coveted arms on the market. He’s being paid just $2.9MM this season, is controllable for another two years (through 2028), and has broken out as a genuine playoff-caliber starter this season. While he’d already been a quality arm in 2024-25 (282 innings, 3.93 ERA, 20.9 K%, 10.3 BB%), Soriano has taken his game to a new level in 2026.

He’s cooled since a historically dominant start to the season (one earned run in his first 37 2/3 innings), but the flamethrowing Soriano still boasts a 3.29 ERA, 24.9% strikeout rate and 51.9% ground-ball rate. His 11.2% walk rate could stand to come down a couple points, but few pitchers possess Soriano’s blend of velocity, strikeout and grounders. He’s averaging 97.2 mph on his four-seamer and 96.4 mph on his sinker.

In the past, Soriano has worked almost exclusively off that potent sinker, but this year he’s deploying the sinker and four-seamer at near-identical levels. The result is a dip in ground-ball rate (down from 63.1% in 2024-25) but a big uptick in strikeouts. A 13% swinging-strike rate and 31.8% opponents’ chase rate both suggest there could even be a few more punchouts in the offing, and a team with a better infield defense than the Halos could also greatly improve Soriano’s results.

Virtually any team in the market for arms will be attracted to Soriano’s power repertoire, track record, affordable salary and remaining club control. He should be one of the top arms on the market alongside his teammate, Detmers. That duo, combined with the previously mentioned Neto, could fetch a king’s ransom if dealt. The haul of prospects would be enough to completely turn around a farm system that perennially ranks as one of the worst in the sport.

Mozeliak’s statement today doesn’t mean that he’ll find an offer to his liking, of course, and the remaining two seasons of club control mean that he doesn’t need to feel pressured to do so. If a strong offer doesn’t present itself, the Angels can simply hold onto Soriano and reassess his value in the offseason. Teams would still love to get their hands on two seasons of him this winter, barring a catastrophic injury in the season’s final two months.