A portion of the pitching market is waiting to see where Roki Sasaki goes, but that didn’t stop Washington from taking a flier on Mike Soroka, who salvaged his 2024 season by becoming a dominant reliever. You might’ve seen the stats already, but his full-season strikeout rate of 24.8 percent and WHIP of 1.38 doesn’t tell the tale of his final few months, during which he recorded a 43.3 percent strikeout rate and 0.90 WHIP over 23.1 innings. Baseball folks have long suspected that Soroka’s command could lead to an increased strikeout rate across time; just didn’t expect the leap to happen all at once out of the bullpen. That’s life though. Development is not linear, and it’s no real surprise that Soroka’s evolution happened after the career near-death experience of failing out of the White Sox starting rotation. He’s an excellent sleeper candidate for 2025 even as his price will no doubt rise while the dreamers gather around the glow of Soroka’s small-sample peripherals.