Mike Soroka added to his arsenal before 2026, and it has proved successful thus far.
The Canadian Arizona Diamondbacks starter is having a solid start to the season with a 4-1 record through six starts with a 4.70 ERA and 1.43 WHIP in 30.2 innings.
Soroka discussed his new pitch selection on the JD Bunkis Podcast on Friday. He said Diamondbacks' management approached him prior to the season about using more pitches in game action instead of relying so heavily on fastballs and curveballs.
"I made sure to tell them, I've never been more bought into needing to add to my arsenal right now, and it's made me feel like a pitcher again, to be honest with you," Soroka said. "It's made me feel like I used to, in the way I used to navigate a lineup.
"Really, for the most part, it was really just always a three-pitch mix, even early Atlanta Braves days. But I used every bit of those three, and I feel like I was able to throw those at any point and count, any point in the game, bigger, insignificant spot, it didn't matter."
Soroka recalled past arguments about having good stuff, but he always knew that with limited weapons, hitters would know what to look for in big situations.
"Ultimately, that's when I was getting beat, when I was in big situations and threw the pitch that everybody knew was coming, and it just doesn't have to be that way," Soroka said. "Sometimes there is a time to go mano y mano, and just go for it, but it just didn't have to be that way.
"That was the whole point with adding the cutter, that was one that I played with at times in the past, played with it early in the minor leagues, and was worried about losing the sinker, so I stopped that even though now I know it actually made the sinker better."
For the first time in his career, Soroka feels he can attack each hitter individually instead of just relying on the few pitches he could offer to them.
"It's so important to give hitters different looks and have weapons for every single hitter in the lineup. ... At this point, as a starting pitcher in this game, you realize whether you throw 94, 98, 91, you need different looks. There's just not enough of an outlier pitch anymore with stuff like Traject for hitters not to be able to figure it out quickly."
Having so many options has also given Soroka the chance to work on past issues of keeping his pitch count down and getting more swing and miss late in counts.
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