Angels Using Hall of Famer Pitcher to Teach Young Starter How to Be Great

Los Angeles Angels pitching coach Berry Enright connected starting pitcher Jose Soriano with Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez in an attempt to help the Angels’ starter mentally.

“I talked to Pedro and said ‘Hey, I want you to teach him how to have a little bit more bulldog,’” Enright said. “He’s gotten that piece. The piece now is to how to peel back when you need to.”

Martinez played 18 seasons in MLB with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. He won three Cy Young awards, made eight All-Star Games and took home an MVP award.

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Soriano and Martinez began speaking with each other a few weeks ago. Soriano had three starts before his Aug. 5 start under Martinez’s watch, and posted a 2.25 ERA across the three combined. In his start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, however, he allowed seven runs on seven hits through four innings.

“He accidentally hooked a splitter into (Josh) Lowe and he pulled it down the line (for a double) and then (Soriano) abandoned it,” Enright said. “He went hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. That’s the next phase for Soriano. In those moments, when guys are coming up, they don’t want to get to those nasty offspeed pitches. They want to get on him early. Now he can peel back a little bit. That’s the next lesson for a young starter. How do you pitch? How do you have the bulldog mentality but also do that while pitching.”

All things considered, Soriano has had a great season so far. While prone to a random errant start, Soriano has shown some flashes of brilliance in 2025, throwing seven or more innings while allowing two or less runs eight times this season.

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Soriano is just 26-years-old and has plenty of time to strengthen his mental game, something which will become much easier with a Hall of Famer on his side.

Soriano will take the mound on Monday against the Dodgers at 6:38 p.m. PT, where he will face off against NL Cy Young hopeful Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Angels swept the Dodgers earlier this season, and will hope to replicate their results as they chase a slim chance at playing in October.

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