If the National League East race continues at its current pace, every game might carry postseason implications. Mike Soroka wants to be a possibly crucial stretch-run addition for the Braves.
The 20-year-old has been on the disabled list since June 27 with shoulder soreness. It’s already his second DL stint in the majors – having made only five starts – after the righty never missed a start in his career, even before he was drafted.
Soroka hasn’t thrown since his last start, June 19 in Toronto, in which he left early with right-shoulder soreness.
“Just progressing through my workouts, some exercise we had planned out,” he said. “It’s all going really, really well, and I feel really, really good. It’s just at the point where you have to make sure you take those extra days just to make sure everything is fine. But I feel really good. Everyone on the training staff is doing a really good job keeping me in it and making sure I have the best resources to use.”
The Braves don’t expect Soroka back before September, and even that may be optimistic. He’ll go to the team’s spring-training facility in Orlando to work out and throw before the organization determines his future, including when he’d potentially begin a rehab assignment.
“I hope,” manager Brian Snitker said of Soroka contributing later this season. “He hasn’t started throwing again, so that’ll remain to be seen. Once he goes down to Orlando and starts that progression back, we’ll just have to see where we’re at. But it’d be great for him and us if he did. I’d like for him to be able to do that. It’d be good for him.”
Soroka hit the 10-day DL only three starts into his career before he was activated June 13. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his first start back against the Mets, when he admitted there were seemingly no lingering effects of shoulder fatigue.
He felt similarly well before his start in Toronto, but as the game progressed, so did his shoulder tightness. Soroka pitched just 4-2/3 innings before the team decided to shut him down.
The Braves moved him to the 60-day DL as a procedural move.
“It sucked to take a step back there,” Soroka said. “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's injury, along with Brandon McCarthy's knee tendinitis, has rendered the rotation a work in progress. Luiz Gohara will make a start after the All-Star break, with the opportunity to earn further looks.
It’s helped Soroka to be in the clubhouse every day, he said, because of the positive vibe around the team. He’s done ample film study while sidelined, though not to a point he would overanalyze.
But he’s itching to return to the mound; an easy assumption to make about someone who until recently was a stranger to DL visits.
“I’ve learned that sometimes you take every five days for granted,” Soroka said. “Just to realize how much you miss getting out there every five days after not being on the DL ever throughout my career. You get to that point and you forget what it’s like, you miss it.”
In an ideal world, Soroka boosts the Braves in the regular season’s final month. They entered Saturday 1-1/2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East, and if the first-half pace continues, every game will make a difference.
“It all depends on a couple things that go on in next couple weeks,” he said. “Make sure I keep progressing and if I do, first step is to start throwing again. After that, we haven’t even talked about length of throwing program yet. But it’ll be up to them.”
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