Braves avoid arbitration with one-time All-Star righty Mike Soroka

The Braves announced an agreement with right-hander Mike Soroka on a contract for the 2022 season, thus avoiding arbitration. Soroka will earn $2.8M on the one-year deal.

The $2.8M figure matches Soroka’s salary for 2021, which isn’t surprising since the Canadian righty didn’t pitch at all last season and hasn’t set foot on a big league mound since Aug. 3, 2020. Soroka tore his Achilles on a fielding play during that game and then suffered another tear last June that cost him a chance to participate in the Braves’ World Series-winning season. It isn’t known exactly when Soroka might be able to return, though all parties are hopeful that Soroka can make it back by July.

As a Super Two player, Atlanta holds an extra year of arbitration control over Soroka, so he isn’t eligible until free agency until after the 2024 season. There wasn’t any sense that the Braves would non-tender Soroka, both because of the extended team control and because Soroka simply looked too good in his 2019 rookie year to cut loose for nothing. The righty posted a 2.68 ERA, 51.2% grounder rate and 5.8% walk rate over 174 2/3 innings in 2019, earning a second-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting and a sixth-place finish in Cy Young Award voting.

Unsurprisingly, Soroka’s arb situation was settled much more smoothly this season than last year, when he gained his $2.8M salary by winning an arbitration hearing. With Soroka’s contract now settled for 2022, the Braves still have eight remaining arbitration-eligible players.