Cubs Interested in Angels Starter Yusei Kikuchi—and in Controllable Flamethrower José Soriano

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

In their sweeping search for pitching help (one that will continue until the MLB trade deadline at the end of next month), the Chicago Cubs have contacted the Los Angeles Angels to inquire about at least two of their arms, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. The Angels have begun increasing their scouting of the Cubs farm system, in anticipation of a potential deal.

The obvious name about whom teams will ask the Angels this summer is Yusei Kikuchi, whom Los Angeles signed to a hefty three-year, $63-million deal over the winter. A terrible pitching development organization, the Angels have given Kikuchi terrible advice, and the 34-year-old starter is barely surviving their mishandling. He has a 3.05 ERA, but that masks a strikeout rate (21.7%) that has dropped and a walk rate (12%) that has exploded, due to an ill-conceived change of pitch mix.

Kikuchi had success down the stretch last year, after a midseason trade from the Blue Jays to the Houston Astros. That came when the Astros helped him hone his slider and increase its usage, so the Angels have elected to exaggerate that approach this year.

Because they're not the Astros, though, they've been ham-fisted in their continued development of the pitch and the pitcher. Kikuchi's curveball and changeup are each better than his slider, according to StuffPro (Baseball Prospectus's grading model for individual pitches), but they've become tertiary elements of his approach this year. That's a mistake.

Teams will circle Kikuchi and ask the Angels about him over the next six weeks, hoping to scoop him up for virtually nothing because Los Angeles invested so much and already has reason to worry that they mislaid those funds. Even the Angels likely know better than to sell him at such a low point in value, but this is the same team who traded Raisel Iglesias less than 10 months after signing him to a four-year deal, so the suitors will check in. Consider Kikuchi one way the Cubs could spend the money remaining in their budget, to preserve most of their depth in the farm system and improve their rotation both in 2025 and for the medium-term future.

More compelling, however, is the other name about whom the Cubs have already asked the Angels—one who would require more of a return and would constitute a greater risk, but whose upside is considerably higher. José Soriano is 26 years old and has already had two Tommy John surgeries. Taken during the Rule 5 Draft in 2020 but returned by the Pirates the following fall, Soriano didn't make his big-league debut until 2023. At that point, he was a reliever with a triple-digit fastball but two big elbow scars and lousy command.

In 2024, however, he stretched out a bit in spring training; made two early long relief outings; and then moved into the lackluster Angels rotation. Since then, he's made 35 starts totaling almost 200 innings, and his ERA is south of 3.50. His knuckle-curve, always a weapon with a uniquely roundhouse sort of shape, has turned out to pair nicely with his high-velocity, heavy sinker, so he's made those two offerings the centerpieces of a five-pitch mix.

Soriano still has shaky control, but he can miss bats—and that's not even his signature skill. He owns the highest ground-ball rate in the majors, thanks to that nasty sinker. It makes him an ideal fit for the Cubs and their sturdy defense. It also allows him to pitch in and out of the trouble he makes for himself with walks and bad counts.

For his career, Soriano has steep reverse platoon splits, which is odd to see from a righty who leans heavily on a sinker and a sweeping curve. The peculiar shape of his pitches, especially from a fairly standard three-quarters arm slot, stumps lefties. He actually needs more work against righties, but that's something the Cubs should be able to help with.

Soriano has three years of team control left, beyond 2025. He'll get expensive in arbitration, and the combination of their poor outlook for contention in the AL West and his injury history should make the Angels willing to part with him—but only if the price is right, and here, "right" means "steep". The Cubs would almost certainly lose Ben Brown and at least one of their top three prospects at Triple-A Iowa in a deal for Soriano, and they'd be taking on a pitcher with ample upside but lots of risk. If his elbow blows out again, his career as a starter is over. Even if it doesn't, there will be times when he can't miss enough bats or gets the wrong bounces, and the tendency to walk too many hitters will bite him.

Then again, Soriano is the kind of pitcher the team has not had in its rotation for too long: one with raw stuff that can dominate games. He's gone 14 innings over his last two starts, allowing just one run on eight hits and three walks. He fanned 18 in those two games, against the hot-hitting Athletics and the Yankees. He'd be a greater infusion of raw talent than the team can make almost any other way, and he'd cost them nothing, monetarily, at least for the balance of 2025.

The Angels might prefer to move some money, so to avoid giving up the whole farm for Soriano, the Cubs could agree to take on a bad contract, like that of broken reliever Robert Stephenson. Los Angeles owes Stephenson the prorated portion of $11 million for this season, and another $11 million next year. Alternatively, to do some one-stop shopping (even if it means that the deal would become an expensive blockbuster, somewhat like the 2003 deal for Aramis Ramírez and Kenny Lofton), Chicago could seek to include Kenley Jansen or Luis Rengifo in the deal. One source said Jansen has already come up in discussions between the teams, but not necessarily in anything linked to either Kikuchi or Soriano.

Though a recent surge has the Angels at a respectable 34-37, they'll fall out of contention long before the end of July. In sell mode, they might look to take some aggressive steps to restructure their core for the future, and the Cubs are one interested suitor. Though Kikuchi would be a much less costly and probably a sufficient move to secure a division title, Soriano looms as one of the most intriguing players who might become available under the right conditions next month.

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[Bertz]

I was really hot after Kikuchi over the winter.  That said the fact the Cubs were not all that hot after him then does cool some of the flames.  It's true that the only period of the last few years he spent with a smart team were the best two months of his life.  But if there's causation there and not just coincidence why didn't someone else pay up?

I'm not as interested in Soriano.  A second TJ surgery is no joke.  The number of guys who've come out the other end and had long term success is pretty short.  Basically just Nate Eovaldi and Jameson Taillon?  The injury risk plus the cost plus the degree to which he's a work in progress as a pitcher is not a combo I want to expend that player capital on.

Kenley Jansen seems like a bad fit.  He would not be deserving of the closer job here, but he is correctly focused on padding his save stats and chasing down milestones.  Hanging out in Anaheim is exactly where he should be at this stage.

[Tryptamine]

Kikuchi I would love. I wanted him in the offseason and he has exactly the kind of upside this rotation needs. The stuff is good and I'd love to see what the pitch lab could do with him. Soriano comes with far too much risk to warrant what is likely to be a pretty high asking price.  As far as Jansen goes, yeah I think this speaks for itself. Hardest of passes.

[Jason Ross]

Count me out on all three for many reasons. Kikuchi falling back on his face kind of lets you know what you have to do as an organization to keep him up. He's not super young, he's signed to a market rate contract for a few years and he's been really bad. Soriano is a bit of a fixer upper and with the TJS, makes you wonder. Jensen looks toasted. 

Think the Cubs can and should be able to find better value elsewhere.