The Diamondbacks have agreed to terms with free-agent reliever Joakim Soria, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Soria, a client of agent Oscar Suarez, will receive a one-year deal. He’ll earn a $3.5MM salary and can earn an additional $500K worth of bonuses based on his total number of appearances, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets.
Soria, 36, is a two-time All-Star and 13-year big league veteran who spent the past two seasons with the A’s under a two-year, $15MM contract. He fared well for the most part in Oakland, working to a combined 3.94 ERA, a 3.46 FIP and a 3.69 SIERA. Soria’s strikeout and walk rates went the wrong direction in 2020, but he managed a 2.82 ERA in 22 1/3 innings due largely to the fact that he held opponents to just one home run.
While many pitchers see their velocity erode as the move into their mid-30s, Soria’s 92.4 mph average heater in 2020 was right in line with his career marks. He’s not a flamethrower and never has been — his career-high average fastball in a season is 92.7 mph — but that hasn’t stopped Soria from missing bats at a high level. He’s faced 2987 batters in his Major League career and punched out 26.5 percent of that group despite average or slightly below-average velocity.
Arizona lacks a set closer at the moment, having traded Archie Bradley to the Reds back at the 2020 trade deadline. Soria becomes the most experienced member of manager Torey Lovullo’s bullpen and, at least for now, would appear to be the favorite to close games. He’s handled ninth-inning work for multiple teams in his career — most recently for the 2018 White Sox, where he saved 16 games. Soria has piled up 223 saves over his decade-plus in the big leagues.
Soria is the first player of much note added by a D-backs club that has been in a dormant state throughout the offseason. Questions about how much the team would be willing to spend have dated back to the trade deadline, when Arizona shipped Starling Marte to the Marlins — a trade reportedly fueled by the team’s uncertainty regarding an eminently reasonable $12.5MM club option. D-backs owner Ken Kendrick has been among the most vocal owners in lamenting lost revenue from 2020, however, and the team’s actions (or lack thereof) so far this offseason are reflective of that.
Cmon Braves do something. Melancon and Greene are out there still. Relief pitchers coming off the board now. Power bat is still mightily needed as well….
Lord man, patience.
It’s February 6. How much patience is appropriate?
You can still have Soria.. at the deadline
Surprised at the relatively modest deal that it took so long. Wondering if he had other offers but overplayed his hand and teams moved on. Even at his age, his recent past suggested to me he was a good fit for many teams considering it was only costing money.
That was outta left field.
Actually, it was outta the bullpen…ha
Actually, in Chase Field it was out of right field…
Still the bullpen though haha.
Dbacks bullpen is in left, visitors is in right
The Diamondbacks have decent potential. Soria gives them a solid bullpen option that can be flipped later if they are out of contention
i mean maybe to be the 3rd best team in the west? they’re lightyears behind what are arguably the two best teams in baseball.
Three playoff teams came out of the NL West in 2017 so you never know
Tons of young talent. The Dbacks will be the best team in the West in 2023 until September when Lovullo blows another 5 game lead.
8th team for him in the Bigs. It’d be cool to see him make it to 10 once he retires.
Decent shot he’s on 9 by the end of the year.
Was quietly hoping for him. Just a steady presence in the bullpen. Doesn’t give up many HR’s, doesn’t walk a ton of guys.
Interested to see what the dollar figures are.
Seems like he has an interest in breaking Edwin Jackson’s record.
Phillies couldn’t do $4?
Not when Chase Anderson is on the board!
Still got to finish “putting the band back together” and must get Jake Arrieta done for twice the years and money that anybody else is offering.
If the Phillies were serious about contending they could have picked up this guy and Melancon for clearly less than $10M.
They may shy away from expensive older relievers because of the fiasco of the three signees for 2018 and 2019.Both of these two have been relatively healthy throughout their careers and now can be signed for reasonable amounts.
for what its worth i cant say a team ia not serious for signing a single specific reliever when there is always so much demand and a solid quantity of supply. they did get Bradley already and there are still options out there. if, say Clippard or McGee could be had for less then I think he’s a better value deal.
Dark side- I see your point..I am a biased observer since both these guys were with the Pirates back when they were actually good. I think that both are still good,and are better pitchers than either of the two that you mentioned.These gm’s who still need relievers shouldn’t wait too long as the better pitchers will go pretty fast now that momentum has begun and spring training is very close.For $3M I doubt that you will get any better value than that and I am surprised that a contender did not sign him for that much money.
I understand that other teams offered more money, but Soria wanted the opportunity to close and build his resume for next year. So, we need to understand some of these signings from the player’s perspective, instead of from the team’s perspective. Yes, most players want to play for contenders, but some look for closing opportunities rather than being a middle reliever on a deep bullpen where they won’t accumulate counting stats to build for a bigger contract down the road.
I understand that that was his reason,although his best years are behind him.
My main point was that he represented a good relief pitcher who could have gotten clearly more money elsewhere.And the other point raised by another poster is that this is only one specific relief pitcher.My main point was that the Phillies should be on some of these guys if relief pitchers like this will settle for this amount since this is very late to be looking for good relief pitchers as most are gone by now.They have. Good hitting team and if their defense improves they will be very competitive with a good bullpen.It may be better than what it was but anything would be better than last year’s bullpen.
I think that they owe it to their fans to get the better ones as money allows.
All good points Mendoza. We’ve all learned that bullpens are often a crap shoot. Dbacks added 2 “good” relievers (Rondon and Guerra) last off-season, and both pretty much stunk it up. So, don’t despair, A late signing might just be the surprise bullpen piece of 2021!?!?!
Scottaz-No despair,I live near Philadelphia and think of the Phillies fondly but still root for my hometown team,the Pirates,even though 43 years removed.
I do not despair for them either as I have accepted reality.
I appreciate your comment.
Wow the A’s completely gave up this off-season
He was so bad for the tigers in the playoffs.
With all these one year deals, 2022 may be the most active ever (hoping there’s no work stoppage).
At this price, I’m wondering why the Mariners didn’t sign him.
I’m surprised as well as they showed serious interest and have said several times they need bullpen help and some veteran presence – uh hello, that’s Soria.
Relievers generally are like a box of chocolates…..
Soria is a very key signing for the Dbacks. Not just because he’s now the veteran of the bullpen with some closer experience, but because the Dbacks will probably fill out the rest of their bullpen with rookies and/or starters converted to relievers. They desperately need left handed relievers, so starters Alex Young, Caleb Smith, etc. will make the team in the bullpen if they aren’t in the starting rotation to begin the season. Same with right handlers like Taylor Widener, Jon Duplantier, Taylor Clark, J. B. Bukauskas, and others.
I won’t be a bit surprised if the Dbacks and several other teams go to 6-man starting rotations to protect starters who only logged 50-75 innings last year and can’t safely zoom all the way to 200 innings in 2021.
I think a lot more #6, #7, #8 and #9 starters in the rotation depth will log 120-135 innings in 2021 than ever before. Not because of injuries, but because virtually all starters only logged 50-75 innings in 2020, and only a couple logged into the lower 80’s innings. That means that teams with the best starting pitching depth beyond the starting 5, will have an advantage in 2021. And the teams that do the best job of managing innings for their key starters will have a big advantage in the playoffs.
Which begs the questions-Will the new quality start stat be just lasting 5 innings?
Will Trevor Bauer be limited to 135 innings thus making his real payment rate $90M per year?
The Mexecutioner! One of the best nicknames ever.