José Soriano is forcing Angels fans into a wild new reality

Is José Soriano the best pitcher in baseball? At the moment, yes. It's doubtful that even the most optimistic Los Angeles Angels fan assumed that Soriano would perform the way he has through the first two weeks of the 2026 season.

Soriano is 4-0 with a 0.33 ERA through 27 innings of work. He's recorded 31 strikeouts to just six walks and has a 0.667 WHIP. If you prefer the advanced metrics, his fastball velocity, chase rate, whiff rate, and ground ball rate are all among the 80th percentile or higher per Baseball Savant. In short, no matter which way you slice it, Soriano is off to a remarkable start.

José Soriano has turned into the Angels' early-season star

This is somewhat unfamiliar territory for Angels fans. While Shohei Ohtani had a Cy Young-caliber season in 2022, he was always known more for his prowess in the batter's box rather than the pitcher's mound. Soriano, however, could be giving Los Angeles something they haven't had since the days of Jered Weaver — a bona fide ace.

Soriano is giving Angels fans everything they could want out of a No. 1 starter. Not only has he been able to get batters to swing and miss (32% K rate), but he's also inducing ground balls at a ridiculous rate (60.7%).

He's all but made it impossible for opposing batters to reach base safely. If he can lower that 9.3% walk rate by a point or two, Angels fans will be staring at the frontrunner for this year's AL Cy Young Award. The last Angels pitcher to take home that honor was Bartolo Colón back in 2005.

If Soriano is to follow in Colón's footsteps, he'll have some tough competition. Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet and reigning two-time Cy Young Award-winner Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers were the odds-on favorites when the season began. Neither pitcher has done much to hurt his stock through the first few weeks of the season, but no one else has done as much to raise theirs as Soriano.

According to Mike Petraglia of MLB.com, Soriano is the first pitcher since at least 1900 to throw 25-plus innings in his first four appearances of a season, while allowing fewer than 10 hits and fewer than two runs.

It's been a long time since Angels fans have tuned in to watch one of their own pitchers showcase his talents, but the early returns on Soriano are quite positive. If we're still talking about Soriano in this manner come June, the Cy Young talk will become much more real.