Pittsburgh Pirates bolster pen, acquire Joakim Soria from Tigers

After acquiring Joe Blanton from the Kansas City Royals last night, the Pittsburgh Pirates struck again this evening by acquiring Joakim Soria from the Detroit Tigers. Neal Huntington and co. were looking to continue to upgrade the Pirate bullpen, as Tony Watson has had some rough outings lately, Antonio Bastardo and Arquimedes Caminero have not been pitching well this year, and Deolis Guerra is in his debut season in the majors after being a career minor leaguer. Tigers’ reporter James Schmehl was one of the first to break the news that the two teams were close on a deal.

Hearing #Pirates nearing deal with #Tigers for closer Joakim Soria. Unclear right now who #Tigers will get in return.
— James Schmehl (@jamesschmehl) July 30, 2015

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that the two teams were reviewing medical records.

Sources: #Pirates, #Tigers reviewing medicals on Soria trade.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2015

Finally, Jon Morosi of Fox Sports called it a done deal.

#Tigers have traded Joakim Soria to #Pirates, source confirms.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 30, 2015

Who are the Pirates sending back in return? Morosi said that it will be one minor leaguer.

#Tigers will obtain one minor leaguer from #Pirates from Soria.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 30, 2015

Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweeted that SS/IF Jacoby Jones is going the other way.

Sources: #Tigers will get Double-A SS/OF JaCoby Jones from #Pirates for Jaokim Soria
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) July 30, 2015

MLB Pipeline had Jones ranked as the Pirates 12th-best prospect, while Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects had him as the Pirates’ 19th-best prospect.

Pirates' 12th-best prospect, per @MLBPipeline https://t.co/79p0Vz9elI
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 30, 2015

We had Jones ranked 19th in our mid-season update. I like the defense/power at shortstop. Don’t like the K/BB ratio as much.
— Tim Williams (@TimWilliamsP2) July 30, 2015

And the Pirates are picking up the rest of Soria’s salary this season.

#Pirates will pick up all of Soria's remaining salary, which is about $2.6M
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) July 30, 2015

On the surface, this looks like a good move by the Pirates. For as much as many people want(ed) the Pirates to make a move for a first baseman, or a bench player, or a starting pitcher, one move most people were confident that the team would make would be for a relief pitcher. Soria is a veteran closer, and even though his best days of pitching were in Kansas City at the beginning of his career, he’s still been a positive win player every year of his career. Let’s take a peek at Soria’s career stats:

Year	Tm	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP
2007	KCR	2	3	.400	2.48	62	38	17	69.0	46	20	19	3	19	3	75	1	270	185	2.50	0.942
2008 ★	KCR	2	3	.400	1.60	63	57	42	67.1	39	13	12	5	19	1	66	6	260	270	3.25	0.861
2009	KCR	3	2	.600	2.21	47	41	30	53.0	44	14	13	5	16	1	69	2	222	202	2.74	1.132
2010 ★	KCR	1	2	.333	1.78	66	56	43	65.2	53	13	13	4	16	1	71	2	270	236	2.53	1.051
2011	KCR	5	5	.500	4.03	60	47	28	60.1	60	29	27	7	17	0	60	2	256	102	3.49	1.276

2013	TEX	1	0	1.000	3.80	26	9	0	23.2	18	10	10	2	14	2	28	1	101	110	3.68	1.352
2014	TOT	2	4	.333	3.25	48	37	18	44.1	38	19	16	2	6	2	48	2	182	123	2.09	0.992
2014	TEX	1	3	.250	2.70	35	32	17	33.1	25	12	10	0	4	1	42	1	133	147	1.06	0.870
2014	DET	1	1	.500	4.91	13	5	1	11.0	13	7	6	2	2	1	6	1	49	82	5.22	1.364
2015	DET	3	1	.750	2.85	43	35	23	41.0	32	13	13	8	11	1	36	2	165	139	4.81	1.049
8 Yrs	19	20	.487	2.61	415	320	201	424.1	330	131	123	36	118	11	453	18	1726	163	3.04	1.056
162 Game Avg.	3	3	.487	2.61	68	52	33	70	54	21	20	6	19	2	74	3	283	163	3.04	1.056

KCR (5 yrs)	13	15	.464	2.40	298	239	160	315.1	242	89	84	24	87	6	341	13	1278	181	2.90	1.043
TEX (2 yrs)	2	3	.400	3.16	61	41	17	57.0	43	22	20	2	18	3	70	2	234	129	2.15	1.070
DET (2 yrs)	4	2	.667	3.29	56	40	24	52.0	45	20	19	10	13	2	42	3	214	121	4.89	1.115

He’s having a very good year this year, and knows how to pitch in high pressure situations. This season, he has a 2.85 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP, has thrown 36 strikeouts in 41 innings pitched. His FIP, however, is 4.85 in 2015, which is exactly two points higher than his ERA. This is a noticeable difference, and it’ll be interesting to see if Soria regresses at all moving forward. However, his career ERA of 2.61 and FIP of 3.04 means that any regression is far from guaranteed. It’s also important to note that Soria had Tommy John surgery in 2012.

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In terms of Soria’s contract, he’s a free agent after the season and is making $7 million this year. The Tigers won’t be eating any of Soria’s salary, so the Pirates’ payroll is near $100 million overall.

As for Jacoby Jones, it’s a decent price to pay for a rental player, but that’s been the way the market has been for pitching this season. Jones is 23 and has a line of .260/.319/.398 with 10 home runs and 60 RBIs this year, mostly in Bradenton, and was just promoted to Double-A. For his career, he has a .277/.336/.455 line, but has a whopping 259 Ks to just 68 BBs. He could be a decent major league hitter, but his future with the Pirates could have been blocked behind Jordy Mercer and Jung Ho Kang. In my opinion, he’s the perfect trade chip for a team like the Pirates.

This was a good move by Neal Huntington. Joakim Soira will most likely be the eighth inning option now, and will act as a second closer. Jared Hughes, Tony Watson, Joakim Soria, and Mark Melancon make a fantastic back-end of the bullpen. The Royals showed how important a great bullpen can be to a team’s success, and the Pirates are now shortening the game with this fantastic quartet.

The Pirates have acquired RHP Joakim Soria from Detroit in exchange for minor league INF JaCoby Jones. pic.twitter.com/23A6bWNfuP
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 30, 2015

Next: Pittsburgh Pirates acquisition breakdown - Joe Blanton

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