Canadian youngster Mike Soroka looks special in MLB debut

Coming into the 2018 season, Mike Soroka was known as a big-time prospect. He was rated 27th in the game by Baseball America, 31st by MLB Pipeline and 33rd by Baseball Prospectus.

Since then, the 20-year-old’s stock has taken off. He began the year with four starts at Triple-A where he posted a 1.99 ERA and a K/BB ratio of 24/5, a dominant month at a level he should have been a couple of years too young for. So, on Tuesday, the Calgary native got the call to make his major-league debut with the Atlanta Braves – and he did not disappoint.

Facing a solid New York Mets lineup, Soroka pitched six innings allowing just one run, with five strikeouts and no walks. That last number might be the most impressive as the youngster had complete faith in his stuff and pounded the strike zone all game:

This allowed Soroka to be efficient with his pitches, throwing only 80 in the start. If the Braves had needed another inning from him, he certainly could have provided it.

The right-hander didn’t just impress with his ability to throw strikes, though. His stuff was looked very sharp as well. Soroka’s fastballs sat 93-94, his slider made hitters look silly at times, and his rarely-used changeup got a couple of swings and misses with its promising 10 mph velocity gap to his fastball.

Perhaps what stood out the most, was the deception he demonstrated. The Mets chased on a massive 51.1 percent of his pitches outside of the zone, and swung on just 64.7 percent of pitches in the zone – a great indicator they had a poor read on his pitches.

It was apparent from the very first hitter he faced – Asdrubal Cabrera – who reached for a two-seamer well out of the zone and tapped it back to him for an easy out.

Later in the same inning, with two men on, he escaped by getting Todd Frazier leaning out and well in front of slider to end the threat.

Those are the kind of ugly swings that Soroka is going to look to make a living off of as a guy who likes to keep the ball on the ground – usually with his heavy two-seamer.

His ability to keep the Mets guessing also led to a couple of very pretty strikeouts. Soroka’s first major-league K came courtesy of a diving back-foot slider that tied veteran slugger Adrian Gonzalez in knots.

He also victimized Cabrera twice with fastballs well out of the zone – the type of pitches that rarely elicit a swing unless a hitter is completely discombobulated. The first was a well away and looked like this:

Even though the two-seamer is comically far away from Cabrera, you can also see why he would have swung for it, thanks to its nasty arm-side run. When this GIF begins it looks like it could be heading for the outside corner then it just keeps on sliding out of the zone.

The second time Soroka got Cabrera, it was with a fastball in the dirt, a pitch that almost never results in a swing.

That was the fourth consecutive two-seamer in the at-bat, but Cabrera still had no answer for it.

The only blemish on Soroka’s record was a slider that he left right in the wheelhouse of Yoenis Cespedes – a mistake that almost always gets punished.

Other than that, you couldn’t have asked for a lot more from Soroka.

Now, a great debut is no guarantee of stardom, or even MLB success, but it’s hard not to be encouraged by what the Canadian starter showed if you’re the Braves. The fact he’s even made it this far at his age is exceedingly impressive. With almost four months until his 21st birthday he’s younger than MLB.com’s top 2018 draft prospect Casey Mize.

Thanks to relatively modest minor-league strikeout rates, many prospect evaluators had pegged Soroka as a middle-of-the-rotation innings eater. While that may still be his fate, if he keeps pitching like he did Tuesday – or even earlier this year in Triple-A – it might be time to reevaluate his ceiling.

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