{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreidw3buzaujnmklmlb2auasq5osy3st6kctqli4i6kjsy5vqvva3wi",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:g673g5qzb2lfjsjw4rzbkvsu/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkovsandbzq2"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreihephg5vfuter4swishzckqymfgxhal34tsvahjfrfeuutjzxevey"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
    "size": 49436
  },
  "path": "/the-angels-might-just-have-a-dude-in-jose-soriano",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-29T19:27:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "MLB",
    "baseball",
    "Chuck Finley",
    "Ferdie Schupp",
    "Jose Soriano",
    "los angeles angels",
    "pitchers",
    "pitching",
    "Small Sample Sizes",
    "discussed at all",
    "tend to try",
    "entire 2021 draft class on pitchers",
    "a high-powered and appealingly strange arsenal"
  ],
  "textContent": "The Los Angeles Angels, to the extent they are discussed at all, have mostly been shamed for having the last two best players in the game over the past decade and doing nothing of substance with either. This has in large part been because they have produced, acquired, and retained a scandalously low number of useful pitchers during that period, although their similar struggles to do that with position players other than Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani haven't helped much, either. They have tried in the determined, strange, deeply ineffective way that the Angels tend to try, signing mid-tier free agents who instantly break in one or more ways and, more recently, spending their entire 2021 draft class on pitchers, an unprecedented admission of need in any sport. The last true impact starting pitcher their system produced was either John Lackey, who spent less than half of his 15-year career with the team, or Chuck Finley, who won 200 games in his career but whose last year as an Angel was 1999.\n\nThere's a theme here, and that is that the Angels stink at pitcher discovery, development, acquisition, and nurturing. When the team found 17-year-old Jose Soriano in 2016, there was no great reason for optimism, less because of anything Soriano did well or poorly than because of which organization would be paying him to do it. Soriano made it to the bigs and flashed a high-powered and appealingly strange arsenal, but until late last month he was just another Angels pitcher like the 210 others in that decade's worth of work product. And no, that's not really meant as a compliment.\n\nIt may now be that even that level of bloom is off this one solitary rose, as Soriano was lit up for two homers and three runs in five innings by the ultramodest Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night. But the reason this matters, to the extent that it might, is that those three runs tripled Soriano's ERA from 0.24 to 0.84, and quadrupled his runs allowed on the year from one to four. And in case you're thinking he managed this as a spot starter, long reliever, or recent callup, you cynical swine, this came over seven starts, 42 2/3 innings, and 163 batters faced. Soriano, who pitches for the Angels, has been the best pitcher in baseball all season long—or at least he was until last night, when he was the 19th best.",
  "title": "The Angels Might Just Have A Dude In Jose Soriano"
}