With Julio Teheran‘s status uncertain, the Braves have dipped into their farm system and called up OFR’s top rated Atlanta pitching prospect, Mike Soroka, to start tonight against the New York Mets.
The Player
Mike Soroka, RHP
Age: 20
OFR Prospect Rank: 2
2018 Level: AAA Gwinnett
The Results
2018: 1.99 ERA | 1.98 FIP | 4 G, 4 GS | 22.2 IP | 9.53 K/9 | 1.99 BB/9
Minor League Career: 2.85 ERA | 2.84 FIP | 63 G, 62 GS | 353.1 IP | 7.92 K/9 | 1.94 BB/9
The History
Mike Soroka was a 1st-round pick (28th overall) by Atlanta in the 2015 draft, a compensation pick from the loss of Ervin Santana in free agency. Soroka was a prep star from Calgary Christian HS in Alberta and a member of the Canadian Junior National Team. He trained with former Brave and fellow Canadian Chris Reitsma.
Soroka was the best starting pitcher of the 2016 championship Rome Braves team that also included Patrick Weigel, Max Fried, Touki Toussaint, and Kolby Allard. Soroka pitched to a 0.61 ERA in three starts for Rome in the playoffs, and his 158 total innings was the highest workload by a high school first rounder in the previous 10 years thanks to remarkable pitch efficiency; he had a 52% ground ball rate and average just over 3.5 pitches per batter.
Soroka was given a double promotion to AA Mississippi for 2017 along with Rome rotation-mates Fried and Allard. Soroka flourished against the better competition. finishing second in the Southern League in ERA and fourth in innings pitched.
This spring Soroka continued to impress, with catchers Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki remarking about his advanced pitching. In his first four starts for AAA Gwinnett, Soroka continued to dominate to earn this promotion. Soroka to date has yet to face a hitter younger than himself as a professional, and only Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña is a younger major leaguer.
Watching him in the weight room, he looks like a guy that is a big-league rotation guy that just has it together, knows what he’s doing.
The Report
Soroka is listed as 6’-5” and 225 pounds. He has a very clean 3-quarters delivery that he both repeats well and has some deception. Soroka has two different fastballs, a two-seam sinker that helps generate groundballs, and a four-seamer that he can spot anywhere in or around the zone, both typically in the 90-92 range but was clocked as high as 97 this spring in a short appearance. Soroka saw his breaking ball from 2016, a slurvy slider, morph into a much sharper slider 2017 which now is a high-80s hard breaker that he can throw to lefties or righties for strikes. Soroka also has a change-up that also has natural sink and can be thrown against righties or lefties. All-in-all, his “stuff” seemed to tick up over the course of the season, and it further plays up due to his excellent control and command. Soroka also gets high marks on poise and leadership.
I was very impressed just by the stuff that he had, the action on the pitches. The force behind his fastball; even though it’s not upper 90s, it feels that way. The heavy ball sank, seems like he’s really got one of those. Sharp slider. Really good change-up, really good. I think that’s his thing. And if it’s not, it will be. It’s very deceptive with a very big change of speed, especially with how the fastball feels velocity-wise. He definitely made an impression on me.
– Tyler Flowers
What’s Next
It remains to be seen if Mike Soroka is in the majors to stay or if he will only be around until Julio Teheran is able to rejoin the rotation. Rival scouts this spring already felt like Soroka was one of the top 3 pitchers in the Braves organization, so now that he’s in, it may be hard to take him back out.
Whose place did he take?
He’s filling the 5th starter spot for now, though they technically didn’t need one due to Monday’s off-day. It’s probably buying time for Teheran to recover from his trap strain.