PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The Pirates ended up getting two pitchers in the first round of the Rule 5 Draft. Using the first overall pick to select Angels righty Jose Soriano and then traded cash to the Mets, after New York selected 6’4” Cleveland righty Luis Oviedo.
Bucs GM Ben Cherington described them as high-upside arms, each with a chance to start this year, but most likely beginning as relievers. The journey for one will be longer.
Soriano comes to the Pirates following Tommy John surgery in February of this year, so Cherington said with a normal recovery time, it could be until May or June until he pitches. Cherington said the righty’s rehab is ‘marching down the field’, but is not finished. He hopes to be able to start working with Soriano soon in Bradenton. But obviously a lot of factors, most notably COVID-19, play into when they might get together.
“Prior to the injury, this was an exciting guy,” Cherington said Thursday. “Physical, really fast arm, high velocity power breaking ball, performed well in the Midwest League as a pretty young guy.”
“Like with every young pitcher there are improvements to be made, working on control and command. First thing is to make sure he’s back in a good spot health-wise. All the reports we have on the kid are positive too in terms of character.”
The just-turned-22-year-old Soriano had a 2.55 ERA in the Midwest League in 2019, pitching 77.2 innings with 84 strikeouts to 48 walks.
Oviedo pitched 57 innings in class A ball in the minors in 2018, 67 strikeouts with a 0.98WHIP and 2.05 ERA. Cherington said the righty was bothered by a short-term back injury in 2019 which contributed to a 5.39 ERA in 19 starts.
The 21-year-old is currently pitching in the Venezuelan Winter League and Cherington said they are able to watch all of his appearances and are impressed with what they are seeing against older hitters.
“He has the pitches to be a starter and certainly has the pitches to be a multi-inning reliever,” Cherington said.
Cherington said they spent a lot of time in preparing for this draft and that it just ended up they went with pitchers, wanting the best talent they could get. It wasn’t necessarily that they had to take arms to help the organization.