The D-backs got the 2025 Winter Meetings off to a quick start, agreeing to a one-year, $7.5 million deal with right-hander Michael Soroka on Monday morning, sources told MLB.com. The team has not confirmed the deal, which includes performance bonuses that can raise its maximum value to $9.5 million.
With Merrill Kelly traded at the Deadline and Zac Gallen declining the team’s qualifying offer, Arizona has two huge holes to fill at the top of its rotation. While the Diamondbacks do have talented young pitchers in their farm system, they are planning to compete for the postseason in 2026, so they want to acquire pitchers who have already had some success at the big league level.
Soroka would join a rotation that includes holdovers Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson.
The Diamondbacks had a team-record Opening Day payroll of around $195 million in 2025, and that is expected to go down in 2026. GM Mike Hazen has said he will still have enough resources to field a team that can contend for a postseason berth, and Arizona is open to trading its top prospects or perhaps second baseman Ketel Marte in order to fill holes in the rotation and bullpen.
Soroka made 17 starts and pitched 89 2/3 innings in 2025, his largest workload since his stellar rookie season with the Braves in 2019. That year, at age 21, he had a 2.68 ERA in 29 starts, making the National League All-Star team and finishing sixth in NL Cy Young Award voting and second in NL Rookie of the Year Award balloting.
Between the Nationals and Cubs in 2025, the right-hander — in his age-27 season — showed some flashes of the promise he displayed before tearing (then re-tearing) his right Achilles tendon and missing all of 2021 and ‘22. Soroka finished the ‘25 season with a 4.52 ERA, but several Statcast metrics (such as his 3.43 expected ERA and .210 expected batting average) pointed to a bit of bad luck.
As a starter with the Nationals, Soroka didn’t typically go too deep into games, completing six innings just four times in his 16 starts for Washington. The best offering in his four-pitch arsenal was his slurve, on which Soroka had a 38.3% whiff rate while holding opposing batters to a .118 batting average and a .245 slugging percentage. A four-seam fastball, changeup (to left-handed hitters) and sinker (to righties) rounded out Soroka’s repertoire.
2025 marked Soroka’s third season and second full campaign since returning from his lengthy injury absence. He posted a 6.40 ERA with the Braves in 2023 and was traded to the White Sox during the ensuing offseason, going 0-10 with a 4.74 ERA for Chicago in 25 games (nine starts) in 2024. He signed a one-year, $9 million deal with the Nats for 2025 before being shipped to the Cubs.
