July 23, 2025; Washington, Columbia district, United States; The launcher starting from the Washington Nationals, Michael Soroka (34), throws the Reds of Cincinnati during the first round in the Nationals Park. Compulsory credit: Images of Brad Mills-Imagn The Cubs of Chicago strengthened their pitch staff before the commercial deadline on Thursday by acquiring the right -hander Michael Soroka of the Washington Nationals on Wednesday evening, according to several reports.
The Cubs send two prospects to Washington in exchange for Soroka: Triple-A Christian from Christian Franklin and the field player in the 18-year-old League Ronny Cruz. Franklin and Cruz were 14th and 13th classified prospects for Chicago, according to MLB Pipeline.
Soroka, 27, started 16 games for the Nationals this season, displaying a record of 3-8 with an MPM of 4.87.
All-Star in 2019 with the Braves, Soroka missed the 2021 and 2022 seasons with injuries from Achilles and was transferred to the enclosure of the Lights last season with the White Sox.
The Cubs have treated several injuries to their pitching staff this season and could seek to add more weapons before the commercial deadline at 6 p.m. and Thursday.
– field level media
Why are people acting like we traded the farm for this guy?? It was probably a low level prospect or cash considerations. Zero downside here if he doesnt work out we move on, if he does we got a potential number 2 starter. Some of yall need to chill and trust the process.
This is either gonna look brilliant or terrible theres no inbetween lol. I’m cautiously optimistic tho
smh another injury prone arm are you kidding me?? how many times we gonna do this dance with guys who cant stay healthy for more then 2 months
Great move by the front office! Soroka has ace potentital when healthy and our pitching development staff is one of the best in baseball. This could be a steal if he stays on the field.
Actually a smart pickup if you look at the analytics. His stuff metrics from limited sample size last year showed he still has plus movement on his sinker and his groundball rate was elite when he was healthy. The Cubs have shown they can rehabilitate careers so this fits there MO perfectly.
For context Soroka posted a 2.68 ERA in 2019 before the injuries but he’s only thrown 61.2 innings since then due to multiple achilles surgeries. High risk high reward type of acquisition, probably gave up minimal prospects.
lmao remember when we though Marcus Stroman was gonna be our ace 💀
cant wait to see him pitch a whole 3 games before he hits the IL again 🙄 but hey at least Jed Hoyer can say he “tried”
I dont get all the negativity here?? Low risk move and if it works out we got a frontline starter for practically nothing. You guys complain when they dont make moves and complain when they do lol
Oh great another reclamation project because THAT strategy has worked so well for us lately. Why not just sign guys who can actually pitch instead of collecting the entire IL???