Jose Soriano He emerges from the shadows and is placed in the middle of a light that illuminates him and places on him the seal of the best Dominican pitcher at the beginning of the 2026 season. Major Leagues.
Soriano comes from having two departures from six entries with ten strikeouts. One of them was against the Atlanta Braves; there he was on the mound for eight innings and only allowed one run.
The other was against the Cincinnati Reds and in that match he performed for seven episodes and retained the red bats to not concede any touchdowns.
With that work in Cincinnati, the man from Dominican Republic became the first pitcher since at least 1900 to pitch at least 25 innings in his first four appearances of a season, giving up fewer than 10 hits and fewer than two runs, according to Major League Baseball analyst Mike Petraglia.
Furthermore, in those four games started, the right-handed mound player left a 0.33 ERA with a batting average against .103.
According to the Codify Baseball page, the Dominican became the fourth pitcher in history with 27 or more innings, one run allowed and 31 strikeouts in his first four outings.
The other three were Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, Roger Clemens in 1991 and 2005 and Zack Greinke in 2009.
Their 31 hitters strikeouts in four starts place him as co-leader in that department in the American League along with Kevin Gausmanpitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Part of Soriano’s great development can be attributed to his mix of pitches that lead him to present a whiff% of 32.4. That statistic is what measures the rate of induced swing swings.
In that sense, the sinkerused 30.5% by him, is the launch that has given him the most positive results; A total of 12 completed opponents, a whiff% of 27.6 and a batting average of .067 support it.
Above adversities
Soriano signed his first professional agreement in 2016 for $70,000 with the Angels. However, before reaching the highest echelon of professional baseball, he had to overcome adversities that they complicated their path.
Years after his first signing, in January 2020, he was subjected to a tommy john surgery and was then taken in the Rule 5 Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Rule 5 Draft is a draft that brings together players four and five years after signing who have not been protected by the 40-man roster.
His stay in the Pirates’ minor circuit was short and in 2021 he again suffered discomfort in his throwing arm. Therefore, in June of that year, he underwent another Tommy John surgery and missed what was left of that calendar.
The Pittsburgh team opted for put it on waivers in November 2021. In the end he was not claimed by any other squad and was returned to Anaheim on November 14.
Soriano spent all of 2022 in the minor league system of the Californian ninth and in 2023 he was promoted to the Major Leagues as a reliever. However, in 2024 he returned to being a starter and stayed there until he found the way to overcome the dilemmas of the past.
