The long road back for Canadian pitcher Michael Soroka of the White Sox

TORONTO — Alex Anthopoulos has a long history with fellow Canadian Michael Soroka. The Atlanta Braves president of baseball operations had watched the right-hander flourish into an all-star during his rookie season and also helped guide Soroka through four tumultuous years filled with injuries.

So, when it came time last November for Anthopoulos to inform Soroka that he was being traded to the Chicago White Sox, the conversation was not an easy one for the executive.

However, it did come with a silver lining.

“I told him that was the best opportunity for him,” Anthopoulos recalls. “With where we were as a team, it was hard for us to go into a season counting on him as a starter with the injuries and so on, and he would have ultimately been in the bullpen as a long guy for us. If he could go to a team that’s rebuilding like the White Sox, that would give him an opportunity to start and work through some things. Now, you [can] have a full season at the big-league level, start to finish.

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“That was going to be better for him and for his career.”

Soroka, who was out of minor-league options, understood the situation and appreciated the honesty from Anthopoulos. The 26-year-old was leaving the only organization he’d ever known — the one that drafted him in the first round in 2015 — but was entering a situation that could potentially be better for him in the long run.

“There’s a lot of opportunity on the table and it’s a little different but this is where I know I need to be to make sure I take that step that I want to, to be [in the majors] for a long, long time,” says Soroka, in Toronto with the visiting White Sox for a three-game set at Rogers Centre.

Soroka, who was born and raised in Calgary, was once among the most promising young pitchers in baseball. He finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting and sixth in the NL Cy Young race during a dominant 2019 campaign that saw him post a 2.68 ERA over 29 starts and 174.2 innings. Soroka also became the youngest Braves hurler to be named to the All-Star Game, a mark previously held by Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz.

As quickly as that success arrived, though, it took just as little time for his career to nearly unravel.

Soroka tore his right Achilles tendon in 2020 and then suffered the same injury again the following year. After recovering from that, he also dealt with a hamstring issue along with forearm inflammation that ended his 2023 season. All told, Soroka has tossed just 93.2 major-league innings over the past five years.

“Patience is the most difficult thing to maintain on a daily basis,” says Soroka. “Whether it’s with yourself or other people. When this is your life and that gets put on hold, you want it to move fast. And I did notice patience was a lot thinner. My focus was on getting back to playing baseball and there’s only so much you can do on a daily basis. Time has to heal a little bit of it.”

Soroka leaned on retired big-league right-hander Chris Reitsma during an extended period filled with plenty of rehab and uncertainty. Reitsma, who also hails from Calgary, has been Soroka’s mentor since the latter was a teenager.

“We talk after most outings,” says Soroka. “He still gives me good, objective advice. He knows when there’s something that needs to change or something that I’m doing well. It’s always good to have that outside source to kind of balance things.”

Finally healthy, Soroka is now re-acclimating to the rhythm of life as a big-league pitcher. His biggest challenge so far has been shaking off the rust that’s manifested in a lack of command — Soroka entered Wednesday tied for the MLB lead with 28 walks.

The right-hander’s struggles over his first nine starts this season (6.39 ERA in 43 innings) has led to the White Sox recently placing him in the bullpen. The hope for both him and the team is that he’ll eventually pitch his way back into the rotation, but results need to materialize for that to happen.

In that regard, Soroka took a strong step forward with a scoreless four-inning relief outing against the New York Yankees on Saturday, allowing two hits and four walks while striking out seven.

“The goal for me is to just absolutely let it eat while I’m down in the bullpen until that [starting] opportunity presents itself again. And then never give it back up,” says Soroka, who touched 96.9 m.p.h. against the Yankees. “So, right now, it’s just every pitch as hard as I can. It’s kind of fun pitching out of the bullpen and getting that huge surge of adrenaline and making use of it. Velo ticks up a little bit. You don’t quite get that as a starter because you’re thinking about going deep. I think I could probably learn just being in the bullpen for a bit.”

Anthopoulos is still keeping tabs on Soroka. He follows the right-hander’s outings and is rooting for him to succeed. When Anthopoulos dealt Soroka last year, it presented an interesting line to straddle between meeting the needs of his organization while also doing a solid to a player.

“You’re always trying to balance that because this game is about relationships,” says Anthopoulos. “In the long run your loyalty is always to the organization first, but if there’s a way to do right by the player in conjunction, that’s obviously a win-win.”

Anthopoulos witnessed the perseverance that Soroka displayed during the valley of his career and, because of that, has unwavering confidence about the right-hander’s future.

“He’s fiercely competitive, fiercely determined,” says Anthopoulos. “He will come out on the other end of this. I know he’s not off to the best start statistically and so on, but there’s no doubt about it. He will come out on the other end of it, whether that’s a week from now, a month from now, a year from now.

“Sometimes it just takes time,” he adds. “But we say this all the time: You bet on the person. And at the end of the day, the cream will rise to the top. Anyone who knows Mike knows he will rise above and he’ll get back to being a top-end guy again.”