Mike Soroka has yet to begin throwing and the possibility of him missing the remainder of the season grows with each delay.
Soroka has been sidelined since June 27 with shoulder soreness, already his second disabled list stint in the majors after having none in the minors.
He hoped to begin throwing after the All-Star break, but manager Brian Snitker indicated Monday that it’ll be a while before Soroka takes that step.
“He’s still a couple weeks away from starting (to throw),” Snitker said. “The treatment exercise and all that. It’s still going to be a couple weeks before he starts to throw.”
Soroka was first placed on the disabled list with a shoulder strain May 17 after three starts. He returned, making two starts, before again requiring treatment.
The 20-year old last threw June 19 in Toronto, a start in which he exited early. The Braves put him on the DL earlier in the season as a precautionary measure, but the recent pain was more concerning.
When Soroka is cleared to throw, he’ll do so at the team’s spring training facility in Orlando. He’d require a rehab stint afterward, but the initial optimism for a September return is lessening the longer he goes without throwing.
“Until he starts throwing, I think it’s hard to put a timetable on it,” Snitker said. “We’ll be closing in on a couple months, so we’ll just have to see. It’s not going to be a situation where we’re going to push him, need him back or want him back. We obviously want him back, but not pushing him to get him back. It’s going to be on his terms.”
With the July 31 trade deadline looming, the Braves have explored adding a reliever and/or starter. The team won’t be able to bank on anything from Soroka down the stretch.
The Canadian right-hander, considered by many to be the best arm in a pitching-rich system, made five starts for the Braves. He earned a 3.51 ERA, striking out 21 and walking seven across 25-2/3 innings.
Before his last start against the Blue Jays, Soroka returned from the DL on June 13 and carried a no-hitter into the seventh against the Mets. Soroka said he didn’t feel any pain during that outing, but the previously endured soreness reoccurred in his next start.
“It sucked to take a step back there,” Soroka told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 10 days ago. “A little bit of disbelief because I came off so healthy the first (start off DL). Felt really good in my rehab starts. Just never really was totally out of there from the first time. There was no way to know that. It was just one of those things that happens sometimes.”
Soroka hadn’t become a fixture in the rotation, but any semblance of his five-start sample would be welcomed. The Braves rotation has been inconsistent for much of the year, especially in eating innings.
Their starters have gone seven or more innings 11 times. When their starter makes it through the sixth, the Braves are an impressive 33-12.
Soroka is being consistently re-evaluated, and the consensus was he shouldn’t begin throwing. As Snitker said, the team can’t determine a schedule until he reaches that point.
And if time continues to pass without any clarity, the focus may shift to readying Soroka for the 2019 season.
