By IAN WILSON
Calgary pitcher Michael Soroka has found a second home in the desert.
The right-handed pitcher already had a place in Scottsdale and he’s now a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The D-backs officially announced on their website on Dec. 12th that Soroka has signed a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027.
While terms of the contract were not disclosed, sources say it pays $7.5 million, with a chance to climb to $9.5 million if performance bonuses are reached.
“We’ve been in the market for starting pitching, likely multiple starting pitchers this offseason, and we felt like Mike had the combination of stuff, bounce-back potential and the upside to make it a make it a good fit for us,” said Arizona general manager Mike Hazen.
“We spent some time, we met with him. I know there’s been some things in the past, from an injury standpoint, that we felt like very comfortable with in terms of the work that he had put in. He’s worked hard at sort of building out his arsenal.”
In making a deal with the D-backs, Soroka indicated the fit with the ball club was a higher priority for him than maximizing the dollar amount of the contract.
“This is a year that I need to be able to bet on things. Ultimately, the total dollar didn’t really matter. When it really came down to it, it was about finding the right situation for me and finding a place that I can really thrive,” Soroka said in an interview with Kevin Pillar, Erik Kratz and Scott Braun on Foul Territory.
“This is a year that I need to be able to go out there and prove to myself, not just everybody else, that I can go out there and throw 180 innings again. That’s something that I’m still very capable of.”
Soroka is eager to prove he can remain a strong starting rotation option on a team that will compete for a spot in the postseason.
“I think where my skillset lies is going to be as a starter … I want to be out there and make the manager’s decision really tough come the seventh inning,” said the 28-year-old.
“This is something that I want to do and I feel very convicted in and I’m very excited to be able to be given the opportunity to do so.”
With the move, Soroka joins his fifth Major League Baseball (MLB) club.
The 6-foot-5 moundsman – who attended Bishop Carroll High School and trained under Jim Lawson in the PBF Redbirds program – broke into the majors with the Atlanta Braves, who selected him 28th overall in the first round of the 2015 MLB Draft.
Soroka made his MLB debut against the New York Mets on May 1, 2018 before experiencing a breakthrough campaign in 2019 that saw him go 13-4 with a 2.68 earned run average (ERA) and 142 strikeouts over 29 starts and 174-plus innings. That year he was a National League (NL) Rookie of the Year runner-up; he finished sixth in NL Cy Young voting; he won the Tip O’Neill Award, which honours Canada’s best baseball player; he pitched a three-up, three-down inning in the MLB All-Star Game; and he was a finalist for the Lou Marsh Award, given annually to the nation’s top athlete.
Soroka was derailed by injuries the following year and missed all of 2021. When he returned to the Braves in 2023, the hill topper posted a 2-2 record and a 6.40 ERA in his 32.1 innings of work.
He was dealt alongside Jared Shuster, Nicky Lopez, Braden Shewmake and Riley Gowens to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for lefty reliever Aaron Bummer in mid-November of 2023.
Soroka experienced a resurgence with the White Sox in 2024. He began the year as a starter and registered an 0-5 record with a 6.39 earned-run average in nine starts before being moved to the bullpen. The move paid off, as Soroka posted a 2.75 ERA while striking out 39 of the batters in 14 appearances.
The turnaround led to a one-year contract with the Washington Nationals and a return to the rotation, where he went 3-8 with a 4.87 ERA and 87 Ks in his 16 starts and 81.1 innings with the Nats.
The Chicago Cubs saw enough in Soroka’s play to trade Ronny Cruz and Christian Franklin for him in a trade deadline deal. The righty recorded a 1.08 ERA and eight strikeouts in 8.1 regular-season innings with the Cubs. Soroka then made two postseason relief appearances for Chicago and surrendered three earned runs and five hits in 1.2 innings.
Heading into 2026, Soroka wants to leave the “what ifs” and “what could’ve beens” behind.
“I think a lot of people look at it and think, ‘What if he didn’t get hurt?’ But I think with the way I threw and the way things happened, there would’ve been struggles, as there are with any career. I would’ve had to figure things out, one way or another. It just kind of happened all at once and in the spotlight of the big leagues after already having success, so I think I’m learning and I got a chance to learn the last three or four years what a lot of guys are coming up and learning in college and in the minor leagues. I just had to kind of do it on the biggest stage,” Soroka told Foul Territory.
“It’s a journey but I think being able to go out there and throw a full season and not touch the IL (injured list) and throw in the playoffs, would just give me the sense that I always had and the things I always took pride in, which was being out there. I didn’t sniff the IL in the minor leagues … that was something that I thought was never going to be a problem because I worked out, I ate well, I thought I would never get hurt. Coming out the other side of that and having all these things that I’ve learned these past four years, really, I think it would feel pretty good to just be able to turn it and not worry about what could’ve been and not have to answers questions about that.”
Added Soroka: “There’s certain things that I had to learn to be able to stay out there, and certain things that have definitely helped. There’s no question from top to bottom my stuff is as good, I think actually quite a bit better, than it’s ever been. I don’t think there’s a dispute in that manner, it’s just about being out there and making the big pitches when they matter.”
Despite his ups and downs throughout his major-league journey, D-backs manager Torey Lovullo expressed excitement about the addition of Soroka to Arizona’s starting rotation.
“Not a lot of people know much about him, but he was an up-and-comer, he’s been battling some injuries early in his career, but I think we’ve gotten through that. I think he’s pushed through that portion of his career. He understands now that he’s not a young player and you have to carry your body a little bit differently to stay healthy and remain healthy,” Lovullo said in an interview with Arizona Sports 98.7’s Bickley and Marotta.
“And the injuries that he had were kind of fluke injuries. So when healthy, we know that he’s got real stuff.”
Lovullo, who suited up for both the Calgary Cannons and Edmonton Trappers in the mid-1990s, praised Soroka’s conduct in the team’s meetings with the pitcher.
“When you sit down and talk to the athletes, he’s not the only person that we’re talking to. We compare notes and talk over what we just have heard. We summarize it amongst each other. You can tell when somebody’s connecting dots a little bit differently,” Lovullo said.
“There’s a certain maturity to the answers. There’s a style to what they’re talking about. And he’s a pitcher. He’s just not a chucker. He’s not going to go up there and live on two pitches, which he did early in his career. He’s figured out the art of pitching, understand how to get out, understands how to follow the game plan. And that’s what we need to do here in Arizona.”
MLB RULE 5 MOVES
Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox selected first baseman/outfielder Matt Lloyd from the St. Louis Cardinals in the MLB Rule 5 Draft. The former two-way player with the Okotoks Dawgs and 2017 Canadian Rookie of the Year in the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) played 78 games at Triple-A with the Memphis Redbirds this year. In 272 at bats, he had 50 RBI, 39 runs, eight homers, 18 doubles, seven stolen bases and a .272 batting average.
The Toronto Blue Jays also nabbed right-handed relief pitcher Travis Kuhn from the Detroit Tigers in the Rule 5 Draft. Kuhn, a strikeout artist with the Moose Jaw Miller Express in the WCBL in 2016, spent most of his time at Double-A in 2025. Over six minor-league seasons, the Californian has gone 29-21 with a 4.13 ERA and 304 Ks in 279 innings and 226 games.
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