Baltimore Orioles claim young reliever from Marlins

The move to claim Soriano comes just a day after the club acquired right-handed reliever Andrew Kittredge from the Chicago Cubs for cash considerations. Kittredge, who the O's dealt to the Cubs at the trade deadline for infield prospect Wilfri De La Cruz, will figure in as one of the top options in Baltimore's bullpen after a strong 2025 season where he posted a 3.40 ERA across 54 games for both teams.

Soriano, on the other hand, is a less proven commodity. After signing with the Marlins at 16 years old as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2015, the right-hander has logged 179 games in the minor leagues across eight seasons. After the 2022 season, Miami chose to protect Soriano from the Rule 5 Draft and called him up to make his MLB debut in April 2023.

Soriano features a four-pitch arsenal that centered around off-speed stuff last year. In 2025, he threw his slider (32.1%) and changeup (30.8%) most often but also leaned on his mid-90 mph four-seamer (18.8%), which was his primary pitch the prior two seasons. Soriano also threw a sinker, which was a new pitch for him last year, 18.4% of the time.

After missing all of 2017 due to injury and all of 2020 due to the pandemic-cancelled season, Soriano had to overcome early bumps in his development. But at just 26 years old, the Orioles will have a chance to help him sharpen his four-pitch mix to contribute as a reliever next season.

The bullpen is a clear need for Baltimore, and they are wasting no time in trying to bolster this unit. While there is expected to be more impact moves on the way, the club has already gone out and signed 2025 standout Rico Garcia and left-hander Dietrich Enns to one-year major league contracts to compete for full-time roles next season.

Soriano, who hails from San Pedro de Macoris, the same city that produced MLB greats Sammy Sosa, Robinson Cano, and Alfonso Soriano, will now figure into the mix of arms competing for a role come spring training. He is due $820,000 for next season and will be arbitration eligible after the 2026 campaign.