MLB Rumors: 3 Trade Landing Spots For Jose Soriano
Jose Soriano entered 2026 coming off a 4.26 ERA in 31 starts and a history that included Tommy John surgery, a Rule 5 odyssey, and years of tantalizing stuff that never quite produced elite results.
Through his first six starts of this season he has a 0.84 ERA, a 5-1 record, and has not allowed more than two runs in any single outing.
He became the first Los Angeles Angels starter to win his first four starts of a season since Jered Weaver.
The pitch mix change tells the story behind the results. Soriano threw his sinker 49 percent of the time in 2025, a ground-ball approach that kept him afloat but never made him dominant.
"I think there could be a situation where he gets traded."
— MLB Now (@MLBNow) April 23, 2026
- @Xavier_Scruggs on José Soriano pic.twitter.com/nBeA4xfW4i
In 2026 that number has dropped to 30 percent while his four-seam fastball usage has jumped from under nine percent to over 23 percent, complemented by increased usage of his splitter, slider, and curveball.
The result is a pitcher who misses bats at an entirely different rate than he did a year ago, and the trade rumors that typically follow breakout seasons are already surfacing.
MLB Network analyst Xavier Scruggs floated the idea publicly in late April.
The Angels are sitting around the .500 mark and are not shopping Soriano, but if they fall out of the AL West race by midsummer, three teams stand out as landing spots.
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs entered 2026 with a pitching staff that looked deep on paper and quickly lost Cade Horton to Tommy John surgery while dealing with injury setbacks for Justin Steele.
Despite that, they sit in first place in a loaded NL Central with a 4.01 team ERA that is functional but not dominant.
José Soriano has a 0.24 ERA
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 28, 2026
That's the lowest ERA in a pitcher's first 6 starts of a season since earned runs became official in both leagues (1913), min 30 IP https://t.co/dhA8Y7wI6N
Adding Soriano would give Chicago the kind of front-of-the-rotation arm that makes a first-place team difficult to beat in October.
The Cubs have the prospect capital to meet the Angels' asking price and a front office under Jed Hoyer that has shown a willingness to be aggressive when the timing is right.
Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto won the AL Pennant last season and entered 2026 as one of the favorites in the American League, but the injury bug hit the rotation hard with Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios, and Shane Bieber all spending time on the injured list early.
The Toronto Blue Jays have the most urgent need of any team on this list and the most desperation to act.
A proposed framework from FanSided's Mark Powell would send top shortstop prospect Arjun Nimmala and right-hander Jake Bloss to the Angels in exchange for Soriano, a package that addresses the Angels' need for positional depth in the upper minors while Toronto gets the current most dominant starter in the sport.
Soriano is signed for $2.9 million with two years of arbitration remaining before free agency after 2028, which means any acquiring team is not getting a rental and would control him through multiple postseason runs.
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson after a brutal start that included a 4.95 team ERA, the third-worst mark in baseball through the first month of the season.
Dave Dombrowski has a history of aggressive deadline acquisitions, and Soriano's 0.84 ERA would go a long way toward fixing the rotation issues that have undermined Philadelphia's offense-driven lineup.
The Phillies have prospects to offer and the payroll flexibility to absorb whatever contract complications arise in a deal.
Whether Dombrowski moves before the deadline or at it depends entirely on how much the rotation improves on its own between now and August.
Photo Credit: Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images
