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Jesse Rogers
CHICAGO — New Chicago Cubs starter Michael Soroka left his first game with his new team with right shoulder discomfort and will require a stint on the injured list, the team announced on Monday after its 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
Soroka, who turned 28 on Monday, felt something grab in his shoulder after throwing a pitch in the second inning. He didn’t come out for the third.
“Went to go put a little extra on a fastball and it grabbed me a little bit,” Soroka said afterwards. “And it didn’t go away.”
Soroka was acquired last week from the Washington Nationals for two prospects and though he’s experienced a dip in velocity over the last month, he claimed he wasn’t in any pain as he took the mound for the first time as a Cub.
“There was no reason to believe there was anything wrong,” Soroka said.
The six-year veteran has been searching for answers to his drop in velocity, eventually getting an MRI before his last start before being traded. It came back clean, according to Soroka, so he stayed focused on his mechanics.
“Everyone knew the velocity hadn’t been there the last month,” he said. “I still had life on everything. The breaking ball was still playing like it did in the first [inning].”
Soroka struck out two in the first inning on Monday, displaying a nasty slurve to whiff TJ Friedl and Austin Haysbut then his velocity dipped in the second when he gave up a home run to Tyler Stephenson before leaving a few minutes later.
“You’re always concerned when you have to come out of the game,” Soroka stated. “It’s never fun. I’m embarrassed. You come to this org and hope to hit the ground running and two innings later, we’re having to pull the plug.”
The Cubs need fresh arms as Soroka was their lone addition to the starting rotation before MLB’s trade deadline last Thursday. Righties Jameson Taillon (calf) and Javier Assad (oblique) are on the mend and due back soon, but the team is still short in the starting staff.
Ben Brown took over for Soroka on Monday but he has been shaky as the every-fifth-day starter. They may need to turn to him again.
“We didn’t have any signs of it,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of Soroka. “His velocity has gone backwards. He’s trying to figure out how to fix that. He was optimistic in the first couple days here that we could help him there and things could get better.
“This is unfortunate.”
Soroka was 3-8 with a 4.87 ERA for the Nationals before being traded for Single-A prospect Ronny Cruz and Triple-A outfielder Christian Franklin.
