Free agent Michael Soroka could be the Casey Mize pivot Tigers entertain

Michael Soroka, still just 29 years old, will almost certainly be hitting the free agent market this offseason. He has a mutual option with the Diamondbacks, but those are almost always declined by one or both parties. Tigers fans likely remember most his time with the White Sox, but also an outing in early April where Soroka carved up Detroit's bats.

Due to his struggles in the past and his under-the-radar performance in Arizona, he could also end up being a better arm to lock in than a potential reunion with Casey Mize would be. But because of his past, why shouldn't the Tigers be cautious, and why does he feel like such a natural fit for the 2027 Tigers?

Reinventing Soroka

In previous seasons where Soroka struggled, he featured a relatively standard arm angle release point of 33 degrees. This isn't a poor arm angle by any means, but it is a look hitters frequently see, and as a result, his four-seam fastball was a fairly standard pitch that became highly hittable, and was previously a pitch he threw 44% of the time. In 2026, he lowered his arm angle by seven degrees, which allowed his fastball to stay more on plane in the eyes of the hitters (adding perceived induced vertical break).

But this wasn't the only adjustment he made to his fastball: he also reduced its usage by nearly 10%, which actually improved his overall results on the pitch markedly. In addition, this allowed the usage on his sinker to increase, which ended up being a major weapon for him this season, allowing a .171 batting average against.

Another added advantage of the reduction in his fastball usage was being able to implement a cutter, which wasn't an elite pitch (13% K rate), but does get hitters out at a high rate (30% put away rate, highest of all pitches).

Pitcher profile

At this stage, Soroka profiles more as a strikeout artist and weak contact specialist than as the groundball artist he once was, which is ideal for the Tigers. His chase rate of 34.1% placed him in the top 16% of all pitchers last season, while his average exit velocity allowed was a weak 87.6 MPH. He doesn't get a ton of pure swing and miss, but because hitters were leaving the zone at such a high rate, he ended up with a solid 24.1% strikeout rate.

Combined with his ability to induce chase is an excellent profile when it comes to commanding the strike zone. His walk rate of just 6.1% is extremely low, and when paired with his soft contact profile on all of his pitches, results in fairly solid damage control on a per-outing basis. His zone contact rate is a very high 87.6% but results in a very high 9.7% pop-up rate. His current fly ball-first profile is concerning, but in Detroit, most of those fly balls should stay in the ballpark.

Overall, Soroka feels like a great fit for the Tigers on a relatively cheap deal. He matches the rest of the rotation very well by also pounding the zone, but gets just enough chase to be a swing-and-miss weapon toward the top of the rotation. No need to overspend on a reunion with injury-prone Casey Mize, just give a middle-of-the-market type deal to Soroka and the rotation will feel very deep going into 2027.

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