Jose Soriano tweak hints at an Angels breakout, but one stat suggests otherwise

Jose Soriano has long tantalized Los Angeles Angels fans with his potential, and while it's fair to say he's become a consistent mid-rotation arm, many would have liked more. Despite a talented arm and diverse repertoire, Soriano struggled with the consistency needed to be a top-of-the-rotation arm in 2025.

The right-hander allowed one run or fewer in 14 games last season, looking dominant at times. He allowed five runs or more in eight games, often suffering some big meltdowns. He led all big league starters with a worm-burning 65.3% ground ball rate, but issued walks a little too often at a 10.8% clip while giving up hard contact too often, even if it was mostly on the ground.

It felt at times as if it was death by 1,000 paper cuts with Soriano. Despite high 90s velocity and a five-pitch mix, Soriano struck out just 8.09 batters per nine innings and managed a 21% K-rate in 2025. A lot of the lack of swing-and-miss had to do with his pitch mix.

The 27-year-old threw his sinker 49% of the time a year ago, with his knuckle curve and splitter being his next two most frequently used pitches. His four-seamer accounted for just nine percent of his offerings. That meant he was almost exclusively targeting the bottom of the zone, making his velocity play down and allowing hitters to only have to worry about protecting against the low pitch.

This spring, he's flipped that on its head. He's thrown his fastball 32.9% of the time, with many of them coming up in the zone and frequently hitting 100 miles per hour, while lowering the sinker usage to just 21.9%. With that, he's raised his strikeout rate to 26.3% and is averaging 10.38 K/9.

Part of that change has led him to be named the Angels' Opening Day starter, a development that is fueling optimism that he could blossom into the ace the Halos have long been searching for.

Jose Soriano's fastball-fueled spring training has built optimism, but a major flaw still exists for the Angels hurler

While a Soriano that can keep the ball on the ground and rack up strikeouts seems like a true front-end starter, an underlying number threatens to prove that the strikeout gains in spring training are merely a mirage.

Last year, Soriano posted a slightly above-average whiff rate of 27%, a mark that was a 63rd percentile performance. It was good, but not good enough to rack up strikeouts at an above-average clip, as his K-rate was just a 37th percentile mark.

That's unsurprising as batters rarely chased outside of the zone, knowing they only needed to guard against the low strike, making it easy to lay off pitches in the dirt and rarely having to worry about high heat.

Despite more variation this spring, he's gotten whiffs just 15 times on 71 swings, which breaks down to a 21.1% whiff rate, a step back from last year's performance. With a rate so low, he'll be hard-pressed to keep up his enhanced strikeout performance.

Part of the problem could be that his fastball just isn't fooling anyone. MLB hitters are good enough to hit triple-digit heat if there's no deception on it. The sample size is small, but that appears to be what's happening here with Soriano.

Having a cautious optimism is fine, but we're going to have to see a lot more consistency in the strikeout department from Soriano once the season begins in order to truly believe he's leveled up and is ready to become a true ace.