George Soriano came out of nowhere for the Cardinals and might actually matter

George Soriano came to the St. Louis Cardinals in a relatively unheralded move that sent Memphis shuttle alum Andre Granillo to the Washington Nationals in return. Thus far, the Cardinals' bullpen has been about as reliable as a teenage boy with a pickup truck, but very early in the season here, Soriano has come in and done a solid job.

In the absence of Matt Svanson being a good pitcher (I wrote about this development, which is truly shocking to me, here if you want to check it out), Soriano has filled a pretty handy role at delivering the game to one of the best closers in Major League Baseball in Riley O’Brien. (I’d say he’s the best closer in the MLB, but have you seen what Mason Miller is doing? Goodness gracious, great balls of fire.)

As of this writing, Soriano had a bit of a hiccup on Saturday night against the Astros when he surrendered a three-run homer in a mop-up 9th inning that required O’Brien to come in and shut the game down. But, on the whole, he’s performed fairly well in the early going. His baseball card ERA is a pedestrian 4,82, but his expected ERA is 2.93 – a figure that most Cardinals fans would jump for joy over.

The way Soriano generates outs suggests limits on his abilities, but stranger things have happened in bullpens.

In the early going this year, Soriano is a groundball machine. He’s in the 87th percentile for all pitchers with a groundball rate of 56%. Fans and analysts often smile when they see groundballs. Why? How many grounders do you remember going for doubles or homers? Especially in the bullpen, having a guy who specializes in inducing groundballs can lead to the inning-ending double play with runners everywhere. I can just feel my blood pressure coming down as I write that sentence. 

He throws sinker, which by definition is looking to induce grounders, but it’s been his fastball that has been his most valuable pitch. Honestly, if the fastball is the base of your value as a pitcher, you’re in a good spot, as nearly every pitcher in the history of mankind throws their fastball the most.

The other trait, so far, that’s allowed Soriano to be a solid part of a very shaky bullpen is his ability to induce soft contact. His hard hit% is in the 89th percentile. There are very few pitchers in the first handful of games that are generating as much weak contact as George Soriano. What happens when you combine weak contact with groundballs? Well, you’re looking at a potentially interesting middle reliever that you conjured from nowhere and are paying the league minimum salary to — that’s a fairly valuable piece if you can find it.

Soriano, though, is missing the strikeout punch that would send him over the top.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Cardinals are employing a groundball, weak contact specialist without much strikeout punch. If that’s not the thesis of the last two decades of Cardinals pitcher, I don’t know what is. The good news is that in his brief career, Soriano has struck out nearly a batter per inning, while this season his strikeout rate is only 6.75/9 innings. There may be room for growth in this area if the slider can bait more hitters into chasing outside the zone. So far, his chase rates are also under his career norms. So I think there’s hope in that direction, too.

Let’s be realistic here, nothing in the profile of George Soriano suggests he’s going to be an elite closer now or in the future. That’s OK. There aren’t many of them (but perhaps the Cardinals have stumbled into one?). But every bullpen on every team needs workaday relievers who are able to come in and preserve leads to secure wins. In a bullpen with as much volatility as the Cardinals have in the early going, we should take workaday guys when we can find them.

So far in the 2026 season, it’s been a reasonably pleasing experience to watch George Soriano pitch. He’s no one’s modern idea of a bullpen template pitcher to copy and paste to every team, but he’s manufacturing outs at a decent rate and has played a role bringing some stabilization to the pen. I expect Soriano will continue to fly under the radar, but I’ll be watching to see if his strikeouts tick up and he becomes something more interesting.

As always, thanks for reading!

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