ATLANTA — Michael Soroka's long road back for the Atlanta Braves has come to an end.
The team traded the right-hander, who just a few years ago was an All-Star and widely seen as the long-term future ace for Atlanta, as well as four other players to the Chicago White Sox on Friday morning for reliever Aaron Bummer.
The Braves also shipped out lefty Jared Shuster - one of the team's top prospects entering last season, who took stints in the rotation at times during the 2023 campaign - along with infielder Nicky Lopez, 2019 first-round draft pick Braden Shewmake and minor league righty Riley Gowens.
Bummer arrives after a disappointing season in Chicago - putting up a 6.79 ERA over 61 appearances - that followed on a dominant four-year run in which he put up a 2.59 ERA in 160 innings for the White Sox.
Soroka, who went 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 2019 for the Braves and finished sixth in Cy Young voting as a 21-year-old, suffered an Achilles tear in just his third start of the next season. It cost him all of the rest of 2020 and reaggravation of the injury made him miss all of 2021 and 2022 as well.
He returned to make seven appearances for the Braves last year, but was ineffective with a 6.40 ERA in 32 1/3 innings.
Shuster, meanwhile, was seen as a potential rotation option last year and made 11 starts but also scuffled with a 5.81 ERA in 52 2/3 innings, just 30 strikeouts and with 26 walks.
Shewmake, the 21st pick in 2019, spent the last two years in Triple-A Gwinnett where his bat has made little progress. He hit .259/.316/.399 in 76 games in 2022 and then .234/.299/.407 in 122 games for the Stripers last year. He made his Major League debut with four plate appearances in Atlanta, but failed to take hold of a roster spot.
Lopez was acquired mid-season from the Kansas City Royals and delivered some moments for Atlanta - including going 4-for-6 with a home run and five RBIs in his first game with the team, a 21-3 win over the Mets in August. He wound up hitting .277/.333/.369 for Atlanta on the whole in 25 games.
Gowens is a ninth-round pick from last year's draft out of the University of Illinois. The 24-year-old had a 1.15 ERA in 15 2/3 innings between Rookie ball and Low-A Augusta.
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