Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Toronto Blue Jays are grappling with multiple injuries to key starting pitchers, raising concerns about their rotation depth as the season progresses.
- 27-year-old starting pitcher Jose Soriano makes a lot of sense as a trade candidate, but it'll cost the Blue Jays.
- This scenario highlights a potential desperation move for the Blue Jays, who might need to offer significant assets to the Los Angeles Angels.
Jose Soriano allowed just two hits over seven scoreless innings of work on Sunday against the Reds, continuing a blistering start to his regular season. Over his first four starts on 2026, Soriano has allowed just nine hits and run run in 27 innings. All of his starts have gone at least six innings, with the longest coming against the Atlanta Braves. Sitting around .500 so far this April, the Angels won't be interested in trading Soriano just yet. He's signed for $2.9 million and has two more years of arbitration before reaching free agency. But that won't stop contending teams — especially those in need of starting pitching help — from trying.
There is one MLB contender who could be willing to overpay this season, and that's the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays have been bitten by the injury bug, with Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios, Shane Bieber and Cody Ponce all on the IL. At some point, Ross Atkins has to act in hopes of salvaging his starting rotation.
Could the Blue Jays trade for Angels starting pitcher Jose Soriano?
The easy answer is yes. Any team can trade for any player at any time in MLB. But expect the Blue Jays to remain patient while they wait for starting pitchers to come back from injury. That's part of the flaw with this process — it's so early in the season, and every front office thinks they have the pitching depth to make a run no matter what's thrown their way. The Jays rotation injuries have set off the alarms, but Atkins and his team aren't in the house.
Starting pitcher | Throws |
|---|---|
Kevin Gausman | RHP |
Dylan Cease | RHP |
Max Scherzer | RHP |
Patrick Corbin | LHP |
Eric Lauer | LHP |
Soriano would give the Blue Jays another strikeout artist (he had 10 Ks his last time out). He's also not the kind of player the Angels should part with. Soriano is a star in the making, and an affordable one at that. This means any trade will be expensive.
What a Blue Jays trade for Jose Soriano would look like
Soriano is throwing like a Cy Young candidate in April, but at some point he will slow down. In 2025 he had a 4.23 ERA across 31 starts. He is a solid middle-of-the-rotation starting pitcher who can bring some heat. But, the Blue Jays will have to pay up for the 27-year-old because of his contract status and their own desperation.
Nimmala is the 71st-ranked prospect in all of MLB, per MLB Pipeline. He's only 20 years old and thus a long ways away from the big leagues. However, he plays such a demanding position that the Angels would have to be intrigued by him. The Blue Jays can afford to make such a trade because their second-ranked prospect, JoJo Parker, is also a shortstop.
Meanwhile, Bloss is the Jays eighth-ranked prospect and has MLB experience of his own with the Houston Astros. That stint didn't go well back in 2024, but Bloss remains an expected back-of-the-rotation starting pitcher or bullpen piece at worst, which the Angels could use in abundance.
Would the Angels trade Jose Soriano this early in the season?
This, to me, is the biggest holdup. When you listen to Angels manager Kurt Suzuki discuss Soriano's most recent start, it doesn't sound like Anaheim will consider trading him anytime soon. In fact, early-season trades are incredibly rare, which is why teams often wait until the literal trade deadline to make a move.
“Every five days, you want a guy like that, if you're winning, to keep it going, if you had lost one to kind of stop it and flip it around for us,” Suzuki said. “So, you feel confident every time he's on the mound. That's for sure.”
Soriano became the first Angels starting pitcher to win his first four starts of the MLB season since Jered Weaver. And while pitcher wins don't mean much these days, they should in Anaheim. The Angels haven't won much of anything with Mike Trout, as they've reached the playoffs just once in his Hall-of-Fame tenure. Any player who gives the Halos a chance to get back there for the first time since 2014 ought to be off-limits — at least for now.