Soria’s success has people comparing him with Yankees’ Rivera
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
NEW YORK | If you want to know art, you’d study Picasso. If you want to know classical music, you’d listen to Mozart. And if you want to know home-wrecking, you’d go to Madonna.
And if you want to know about ice-cold closers, the kind who regularly reduce the last three outs to a formality while showing all the emotion of a refrigerator, you’d ask the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera.
If you did, you’d find the master taking particular pride in watching the Royals’ Joakim Soria emerge as one of the game’s best closers.
“I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it,” he says. “Great composure. Great demeanor. When you go there, that’s what you look for in a closer. Being able to do it day in, day out, have a short memory, that’s the best thing you can have.”
Rivera has heard the comparisons, too, about how his old minor-league manager Trey Hillman says Soria has the same cool way about him.
He has some thoughts on that.
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Soria and Rivera enter a hotel ballroom at the same time, their tables for Monday’s media interviews next to each other. Rivera is balding on top and graying on the sides, while Soria has a head full of spiky hair and a mouth full of braces.
Before they sit down, each with their slender frames dressed in an untucked dress shirt, they exchange quick man hugs — the master and the hopeful.
Soria’s first few questions come from reporters representing Mexico. When the English starts, someone asks if he’s surprised to be an All-Star.
“That’s funny,” Soria says, “I was just answering that question in Spanish.”
That’s OK. Soria knows his numbers — 25 saves in 27 chances, 46 strikeouts to nine walks, and a 1.47 ERA — make him arguably the first Royals player to make the All-Star team based on merit since Mike Sweeney in 2005.
He also knows his rise from Class A ball in 2006 to Rule 5 pick in 2007 to All-Star and owner of a potential $30 million contract aren’t normal. If he’s honest, it still weirds him out when the game’s biggest stars recognize him.
His first clue that his success is being noticed came this season, when Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon found him before a game and hollered, Hey, what’s up Joakim!?
Great players recognize great players, and this year’s All-Stars are hitting a combined .176 (six for 34) with 10 strikeouts against Soria.
“Nasty,” says Minnesota’s Justin Morneau, who is one for six. “He’s 93-94, but it looks like it’s 97-98. He’s confident, comes right at you, doesn’t mess around. He’s got a chance to be one of the best closers in the game for sure.”
Soria doesn’t mind the comparisons, but he doesn’t especially like them, either. Part of it is recognition that no second-year closer should be compared to a guy with 466 saves, nine All-Star selections, and four championship rings.
But the other part of it is recognition that he is his own man. The comparisons to Rivera are superficial, based on body type and language, because Soria pitches nothing like Rivera. Heck, not many do. How many guys build Cooperstown-worthy resumes based almost entirely on one pitch?
Soria pitches off his fastball but also mixes in a curveball, change-up and slider, more this year than he did as a rookie. He’s already thrown more sliders than he did last year, and Royals catcher John Buck says he’s seen several more pitches in the bullpen that Soria hasn’t used in games yet.
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To reach Sam Mellinger, national baseball reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com.
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