José Soriano is playing meaningful September baseball for the first time in his career, now part of a Toronto Blue Jays squad that owns the American League’s best record (22-13) since July 27, sitting only a half-game back of the 22-12 Philadelphia Phillies for baseball’s top record in that span.

Before the Blue Jays acquired Soriano at last month’s trade deadline, he had never experienced any sort of stretch run in the majors. That’s because the always-dysfunctional Los Angeles Angels — who may finally possess a brighter future under soon-to-be new owner Stan Kroenke — failed to win more than 73 games in each of the right-hander’s first three seasons from 2023-25.

The Angels have routinely been well out of contention long before September begins in the 12 years since they last made the playoffs. Even this year, they sat at the bottom of the AL standings as the August 3 trade deadline arrived, nearly 14 games back of the final wild-card spot.

Another meaningless sprint to the off-season appeared to be Soriano’s fate — until the Blue Jays, now one game under .500 and half a game behind the Guardians for the final AL wild-card seed, saved him from arriving at that destination.

Amazingly, the Blue Jays have found their stride since trading away the likes of Kevin Gausman, Daulton Varsho and Jeff Hoffman. In one month since the Aug. 3 deadline passed, they’ve been playing their best brand of baseball and have become one of the sport’s hottest clubs, putting them among the teams no division winner wants to face in a best-of-three wild-card series.

In six starts as a Blue Jay, Soriano boasts a subpar 4.36 ERA and 16.8 per cent strikeout rate, still looking to find the consistency to pair with his front-line starter ceiling. But an outing like Thursday’s — allowing three earned runs on six hits and three walks while only striking out two over 4.2 innings, throwing first-pitch strikes to 79 per cent of the 24 batters he faced — offered yet another glimpse into why he was the focal point of the franchise’s buy-and-sell hybrid deadline plans.

The 27-year-old, who won’t become a free agent until after the 2028 season, has the type of arsenal worth betting high on — and wouldn’t have been highly coveted leading up to the trade deadline if he didn’t. All the former Angel needs is a bit of polishing around the edges to transform into a diamond.

Following his latest start against the Guardians, which featured extremely hot and humid conditions during the afternoon finale at Progressive Field, much of the focus will likely centre around finishing off opposing batters more efficiently. Gaining count leverage wasn’t an issue. But when he jumped ahead with two strikes, most at-bats were prolonged by a lack of swing-and-miss or inconsistent command, contributing to his elevated pitch count.

If you’ve followed Cease’s Cy Young transformation this season, this subject will probably sound quite familiar.

There’s surely more to come in this regard for Soriano. However, with the Blue Jays surging towards a post-season run, any significant tweaks — pitch shapes, mechanics or anything of that nature — will have to wait until this winter. The time will come when they can send him to their high-tech pitching lab at the player development complex down in Dunedin, Fla.

As is, though, Soriano — who didn’t become a full-time starter until last season — is soaking in every ounce of this competitive September push. None of this seemed possible just over a month ago. Now it’s become reality, and depending on where this season takes us, he may soon reach the precipice of his first career playoff start.

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