Oct 2, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; General view of a Turner Field logo on first base before a game between the Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 2, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; General view of a Turner Field logo on first base before a game between the Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports /
Canadian Mike Soroka has made a big impression on the Atlanta Braves in his short time in the system. What’s in store for his 2017?
Player Profile
The Atlanta Braves selected Soroka with the 28th selection in the 2015 draft, a compensatory selection for losing free agent Ervin Santana to the Minnesota Twins.
The Braves opened Soroka with their Gulf Coast League rookie ball team, and after just 4 appearances, Soroka showed he was more than ready to move up, earning a promotion to Danville in the advanced rookie Appalachian League for 6 starts to finish the season.
His overall statistics on the season were 10 appearances, 34 innings, 3.18 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, and a 5/37 BB/K ratio. He also did not allow a single home run in that time.
Soroka was part of the excellent rotation in low-A Rome this season, pitching the majority of the season at 18 years old.
Soroka threw very well in the regular season, making 25 appearances, throwing 143 innings with a 3.02 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and a 32/125 BB/K ratio. He continued to limit home runs, with only 3 allowed on the season.
In the playoffs, Soroka was the bearer of poor luck, taking the loss in his second start against Lakewood in spite of giving up 4 unearned runs. In total, he made 2 starts, threw 14 2/3 innings, with a 0.61 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and a 1/10 BB/K ratio.
Size – Mike is listed at 6’4″ and 195 pounds. He is definitely long and lean, and he has long arms that he uses well in his delivery.
Delivery – Soroka has a delivery that would make Greg Maddux proud, with slow, steady movements early and a quick, consistent arm movement at the end.
Soroka takes a small step back toward first base to start his delivery, brings his left knee just below the letters, and then tucks his upper body into his knee just a touch.
He turns his left hip and shoulder toward third base at the very peak of his delivery before pushing forward with the left foot toward home plate with a long stride and releasing with a high 3/4 delivery.
Soroka finishes with a high leg kick that sometimes can throw him off his balance a bit in fielding, but does not seem to be an issue of over-exertion as much as sometimes watching too long for the call of the pitch while the leg is moving and falling off (which honestly did make me laugh just a touch!).
Control (60) – Soroka has received tremendous note from the get-go on his control, but what struck me in his work in 2016 was his command. He did have a rough stretch in his season where he seemed to struggle with getting the movement he wanted on pitches, but he was still dead on the catcher’s mitt on every pitch.
That said, one of the things that could lead to some extra strikeouts for Soroka in the future is to command the ball out of the zone some, which is something he doesn’t often do at this point, preferring to pound the ball within the zone.
I think more than anything, Soroka seemed visibly shaken in his confidence in his pitches at times in 2016, which led to some of the times when he struggled with control, and if he can simply trust the excellent stuff he has, he’ll be sitting well and could see a half- to full-grade tick up on this grade.
Pitches
Fastball (60) – It’s been a well-known thing around the interwebs how much I like Robert Whalen due to his ability to play mind games with hitters using different grips on all his pitches. Soroka does exactly that as well.
He throws the ball in the low 90s on the mound, but he’s been recorded on the gun as high as 96 in reports I’ve received and games I’ve viewed with a gun. Usually when he’s going for that top end velocity, he is working up in the zone, but he works almost exclusively low in the zone, using his long arms and high 3/4 release point to generate great plane, so when he does go high velocity up in the zone, it’s a hard pitch for hitters to catch up to.
This season also definitely saw the definition of his two-seam vs. his four-seam fastball as the season wore on. His early starts, it was hard to note the difference in the pitch movement, but by the end of the year, it was obvious when Soroka had thrown his four- or two-seam pitch.
The two-seamer has some tremendous life low in the zone on both sides of the plate, and Soroka does very well adding and subtracting velocity to the pitch along with locating it, even getting some places to chart it as a change up due to the velocity at times.
The two-seamer is his primary pitch, and he gets excellent weak contact from the pitch.
Change Up (60) – Soroka offers his change with a similar sink to his primary two-seam fastball, and his arm speed deception really makes the pitch play up significantly.
I’ve seen lower grades on the pitch, but I honestly had trouble placing a flat 60 on the pitch as I think from my viewing, it may be the best change up left in the Braves system after the guys who I believe had the two best (John Gant and Whalen) were traded this offseason.
With the excellent movement on the pitch and velocity differential, his change gets plenty of swing and miss on top of the weak contact that the two-seamer generates.
Curve Ball (55) – Soroka’s curve could get mistaken for a slider at times due to the lack of big break that he generates as it’s really not a looping, big curve like teammate Touki Toussaint throws.
The curve, however, could be a pitch that soon is a 60-grade as well as he works to consistently harness what was new-found velocity in the pitch this year, where he got the hard break at 83-86 rather than hanging right around 80 with the pitch before.
In watching games late in the season, he would throw 3 of every 4 curves with the higher velocity, and it turned much more into a strikeout pitch, which could be a major change for Soroka and really make him into an elite starter, getting loads of grounders with all three pitches and also getting strikeouts with the curve and change.
MLB Player Comp
From the time he returned from his surgery, Adam Wainwright could have been a mirror image of Soroka’s pitching on the mound, working down in the zone with everything.
Granted, Wainwright is 6’7 and 230 pounds, but he’s got the same lean build as Soroka. In 2016, Wainwright’s pitch usage was focused primary on three variations of his fastball and his curve with his change working in infrequently.
Soroka uses his change like Wainwright uses his cutter along with the sinking fastball, then throwing a hard fastball now and again up in the zone as Wainwright likes to do as well.
Wainwright’s curve, much like Soroka’s, plays more like a slider in that he works it low in the zone more for weak contact than for strikeouts, though Soroka’s has seen more swing and miss since finding that added velocity this season.
Soroka will be at high-A this season, and frankly, his maturity on the mound could be a very intriguing possibility to move quickly on the mound up the line if he performs well.
I am very intrigued how Soroka’s mindfulness and working multiple grips on his pitches could fit into a rotation with guys like Sean Newcomb, Mike Foltynewicz, Max Fried, and/or Patrick Weigel, who can all ramp up their offerings into the mid-90s!
