The season is over for Angels starter José Soriano. The Halos placed the righty on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm contusion. Lefty Sam Aldegheri was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake in a corresponding move.
Soriano was struck in the arm by a comebacker from Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers last night. The ball came off the bat at 107.4 MPH. Soriano immediately exited the game. X-rays did not reveal any fractures, but the injury was significant enough that he won’t be able to make his final two starts. That won’t mean much to an Angels team that is officially resigned to a 10th consecutive losing season.
The only potential impact on the standings is that it takes Soriano out of consideration to start against the Astros in the final weekend. The hard-throwing sinkerballer would have lined up to start Tuesday’s series opener against the Royals. That would have put him on schedule for the finale against the Astros next Sunday. That game may be relevant with Houston currently tied with the Mariners for the top spot in the American League West.
Soriano’s season concludes with a 4.26 earned run average in 31 starts. He’s second on the team behind Yusei Kikuchi with 169 innings. Soriano and Kikuchi have been the Halos’ two best starting pitchers overall, though they’ve each had rough second halves after stronger starts. Soriano is the sport’s top ground-ball specialist, at least among starting pitchers. His 97 MPH sinker has led to a massive 65.3% grounder rate. That’s almost six percentage points above the second-highest mark in MLB (minimum 100 innings).
The 26-year-old fell 11 days shy of qualifying for arbitration as a Super Two player last offseason. He’ll earn his first significant pay raise next winter and is under club control for three more seasons. Soriano should be assured of a rotation spot going into next year. That’d also be true of Kikuchi barring an unlikely trade that allows the Angels to shed the remaining two years and $42MM on his contract. The Angels will probably need to make three acquisitions over the winter.
Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Anderson are impending free agents. Jack Kochanowicz was one of the least effective starters in the majors. The Halos have given a handful of starts to each of Victor Mederos, Caden Dana and Mitch Farris. They’ll be in the mix for back-end or relief jobs but shouldn’t be in the projected starting five. That’s also true of the 24-year-old Aldegheri, who’ll probably make his first two MLB starts of the season next week. Aldegheri has been shelled in a pair of big league relief appearances but turned in a 3.72 ERA over 23 Double-A starts this year.