Michael Soroka’s Chicago Cubs debut lasted only two innings.
When the next time he pitches in a Cubs uniform will be is concerningly unclear.
Soroka departed after the second inning due to right shoulder discomfort on Monday in the Cubs’ ugly 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. His shoulder issue will land him on the 15-day injured list, manager Craig Counsell said postgame, and require further testing.
“You feel bad for Michael, first, and just hope that there’s just some discomfort there and a couple weeks can take care of it,” Counsell said. “That’s where we’re at. We’re going to have to wait to get more information before we know what we’re dealing with.
“I don’t think we should speculate,” he added. “The doctors will take a look and then we’ll go from there. Any shoulder, injured list, there’s concern.”
Soroka, who turned 28 on Monday, started the night strong by striking out three of the four batters he faced in the first inning. As the lone starting pitcher the Cubs acquired prior to Thursday’s trade deadline, losing Soroka for even two weeks is a blow, even with right-handers Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad on rehab assignments with Triple-A Iowa and nearing returns.
“Obviously you’re always concerned when you have to come out of the game,” Soroka said. “It’s never fun and it’s embarrassing. It’s something that you come to this org and you hope to hit the ground running, and two innings later, we’re having to pull the plug.
“So obviously it’s concerning, but there is hope that it’s something that can be taken care of fairly quickly, and hopefully we’ll be back out there in some respect at some point soon.”
Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs strikes out during the ninth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field on August 4, 2025. (Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images)
Notably, Soroka’s velocity was again down on all of his pitches, a trend that was already concerning when the Cubs acquired him Wednesday from the Washington Nationals.
After posting a season-high 94.9 mph average on his four-seam fastball in his start on June 22, his velocity steadily declined over the ensuing four weeks, dropping as low as a 90.9 mph average on July 23. Although his fastball velocity ticked up marginally in his last start before the trade, the pitch sat at a season-low 90.8 mph Monday.
As part of the effort to figure out his velocity loss, Soroka said he had an MRI before his June 29 start, his final with the Nationals, “for my peace of mind” and “there was nothing that presented to be an issue at the time there.” He said he underwent a physical exam, too, in which he didn’t experience any pain or discomfort.
“There was no reason to believe anything was wrong, we just decided to go down that avenue just to make sure,” Soroka said. “Unfortunately, that changed tonight.”
Soroka felt his shoulder grab a little when he tried to put “a little extra” on a 1-1 fastball he threw to Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson in the second inning — a 91.7 mph four seamer that he yanked down and away for a ball. Three pitches later, Stephenson slugged a solo home run off a slurve to give the Reds an early lead.
Soroka was able to get through the rest of the inning but informed pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and head athletic trainer Nick Frangella in the dugout of the discomfort he had experienced, deciding to play it safe.
“Obviously everybody knew that the velocity hadn’t been there the last month,” Soroka said. “But I went out there in the bullpen, everything felt good early on. Over the last month, things were still playing. I still had life on everything. The breaking ball was still playing, obviously like it was in the first. It just didn’t let me continue that way. It obviously showed signs that I need to say something and that’s what I did.
“There’s a lot of baseball left for this club, and I’d like to be a good part of that down the stretch, so we’re going to do everything possible to be there.”
Right-hander Ben Brown, who was available out of the bullpen this turn through the rotation, replaced Soroka to start the third. Brown stepped up, holding the Reds to one run and two hits in four innings without walking a hitter and striking out five. He got unlucky on the lone run he allowed when left fielder Ian Happ couldn’t cleanly field Elly De La Cruz’s double against the foul-line wall to score Matt McLain from first to tie the game in the sixth.
McLain’s soft single and De La Cruz’s half-swinging double featured a .210 and .070 expected average, respectively.
The Reds took the lead in the seventh with a timely two-out hit off Caleb Thielbar, who entered with runners on the corners in relief of Ryan Brasier. TJ Friedl sent a 2-2 sweeper into center field for the go-ahead run.
The Cubs briefly tied the game in the bottom half of the seventh when Dansby Swanson beat a throw to first base on a two-out grounder to third, scoring Willi Castro. However, the Reds challenged the call and replay review showed Swanson’s initial step to the base was inches short — by the time he dragged his foot across Reds first baseman Spencer Steer had caught the throw.
The overturned call ended the seventh, and the Cubs only put one runner on base, a Pete Crow-Armstrong hit by pitch, in the last two innings. The Cubs, now three games back of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central, finished with just three hits.
“Initially, I felt like I was a little bit short, I didn’t think I was as short as the replay was,” Swanson said. “I know I touched it at some point. I didn’t know when in the process.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever done that in my baseball life, to be honest, so just pretty unfortunate timing on the night.”
The lack of offense, featuring an 0-for-14 performance from the Cubs’ top four hitters in the lineup, continues a stretch where the Cubs haven’t put up enough runs consistently to eliminate the small margin for error in games.
The Cubs are missing slug from their best hitters, including Seiya Suzuki, who is hitting .179 in the last three weeks with only one home run, three doubles and five RBIs in that span. The group entered Monday’s series opener at league average in wRC+ (100) and 21st in runs scored over the last month.
“I like the lineup we throw out there every day so I’m very optimistic that we’re going to score runs, absolutely,” Counsell said. “The other team’s trying to prevent it, and sometimes they do a pretty good job of it. They did a good job tonight, but we’ll score runs.”
Originally Published: August 4, 2025 at 8:07 PM CDT