Jose Soriano’s Cy Young push is hiding true Angels pitching success story elsewhere

When it comes to starting pitching success stories, for most, the conversation is dominated by Jose Soriano's ongoing 2026 breakout. When you have a guy beginning the year by setting big league history, it's easy to see why he'd hog the spotlight. On top of that, Los Angeles Angels fans aren't generally used to positive pitching development stories, but in the case of Walbert Ureña, we're watching one unfold in real time.

Ureña is coming off a six-inning one-run performance that helped the Angels close out a series win against the Chicago White Sox. The back-to-back victories for Los Angeles between May 5 and May 6 was the first time the club had strung together two wins since April 16 and April 17, when they won the series finale against the New York Yankees and the series opener against the San Diego Padres.

Ureña has now made four starts since being re-called and inserted into the rotation, owning a 3.48 ERA as a starter. It's still early, but it's looking like we're getting an answer as to whether or not he's best suited for the rotation or the bullpen.

Angels might have finally found a young building block for the rotation in Walbert Ureña

One of the prevailing thoughts regarding Urena's future was that his high-octane fastball would play up better in the bullpen than in the rotation. So far, though, he's shown he can still pump triple-digit heat even if he has to plan to get through a lineup multiple times in his role as a starter.

However, so far, it's been his fantastic changeup that has done the most damage. It's his most used pitch with a 32% utilization and has generated a 29.4% whiff rate. Hitters are hitting just .107 against the offering, and it has produced a run value of three thus far.

There are a lot of other under-the-hood metrics that look great for Ureña's continued success. His chase rate of 33.5% ranks in the 78th percentile. His average exit velocity of 86.4 miles per hour is an 84th percentile mark, and his 31.7% hard-hit rate ranks in the 83rd percentile. He's done a great job generating ground balls at a 52.4% clip and has an expected batting average of .197.

That's a pretty solid recipe for success, even if he's only striking out a pedestrian 21.4 % of batters, and one would expect that number to come up with the quality of his stuff. The one glaring red flag is his walk rate. This has been an issue for him in the minors as well, and command issues can lead to big-time blowups. The 22-year-old cannot continue walking batters at a 15.8% clip.

Perhaps the biggest cause for concern is the Angels themselves. The track record of the franchise in developing pitchers has been atrocious, and the way they handled top pitching prospects, Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri, doesn't inspire confidence that they won't eventually screw with Ureña, too.

But if the Halos just let him do his thing and he keeps this up, they could really have something here. Adding him to Jose Soriano and having him sustain success alongside Jack Kochanowicz and Reid Detmers, Los Angeles might finally have the foundation for a productive rotation. Before we get ahead of ourselves, we'll need to see more from the flame-throwing youngster, but so far, there have been mostly encouraging signs.

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