Royals designated hitter Jorge Soler has made a change in representation. According to a tweet from Jon Heyman of MLB Network, Soler has chosen to work with agent Casey Close of Excel Sports Management after previously working with ACES (link).
The timing of this change is certainly interesting. Soler’s current contractual status with Kansas City is unique, owing to the nine-year, $30MM accord he signed with the Cubs as a 20-year-old back in 2012. After logging a 2019 campaign that included a .265/.354/.569 slash and 48 home runs, Soler is “signed” for the 2020 season at just $4MM. However, the 27-year-old retains the right to opt out of that guaranteed salary and into MLB’s arbitration process this winter, as is the case with many Cuban defectors who signed Major League deals under the previous international free agency infrastructure. Given Soler’s counting stats alone, he’s almost a certain lock to opt for the arbitration route.
Though KC still holds Soler’s rights through 2021, it stands to reason that club exec Dayton Moore might kick the tires on a potential long-term extension with the slugger this winter. If the club aims to contend within the next two seasons, as they’ve stated, Soler and his potent bat (136 wRC+ in 2019) project to be indispensable to Kansas City’s currently tepid offensive attack (cumulative 84 wRC+ in 2019).
And it certainly seems like Moore might agree with that logic: yesterday, we heard that the club is interested in using its financial resources to secure the services of existing players into the future. Hunter Dozier, Adalberto Mondesi, and Brad Keller could all be viable candidates for such an allocation, but Soler’s potentially imminent entry into arbitration could give the Royals added incentive toward wrapping an extension this winter. If both parties are open to such an idea, our own Steve Adams recently used Randal Grichuk’s five-year, $52MM 2019 extension with the Blue Jays as a touchstone for possible negotiations between Royal officials and Soler reps.
If Soler opts out and leaves KC then the rebuild will take a major step back. KC barely fields an MLB team as it is.
He would be opting out of his guaranteed annual $4M salary and into arbitration not opting out of his contract and becoming a free agent.
If arbitration helps him get a good salary, KC might ship him out instead of paying him big to mash in the cellar.
Although I rate Jorge Soler as the best DH in 2019, he’s not a player KCR needs to build around. KCR is pitching-defense-speed.
Even the Cardinals of the 80’s has Jack Clark. You need someone to pop it out occasionally.
But Whitey sure had rabbits. Some of the best baseball I ever watched was those fast cardinal teams of the 80s
I hope he hits 50 bombs next year—another former cub setting world on fire “ain’t a good look” for Theo.
In the juice ball era. How many homeruns across baseball has been affected by it?
if we are assuming the ball was the same for each player, then each player would have added the same percent of homers, no? this means that he would still have won the AL title.
Thats not how any of this works. Its not linear like that
Oh it only works for some players
Obviously the juiced ball was not used to pitch to the Tigers.
Hater. Mind your Sox business. When was the last time you and your team brass won anything? Shut it!
You better pray to that little grandpa Ross shrine you have… not too many are hot on the cubs with their payroll and collapse
Hey, the cubs won their World Series this century, they can always look forward to the next century.
Again, let’s get into the DeLeorean and bring 2019 Jorge to 2017 when he was lost at the plate or injured half the year or couldn’t DH 100 games.
Put Soler in the OF and he maxes out at 100 games a season. The Cubs do not regret that trade at all.
You’re the reason why our team sucks so bad, nobody wants to go see the Sox anymore. They just want to hate the Cubs. Keep it up
@ChiSoxCity you seem obsessed with Theo because he won a world series with the Cubs. So pathetic of you
@ChiSoxCity
Just like Fernando Tatis, Jr. and Marcus Semien is not a good look for the White Sox
Man if the White Sox still had Tatis and Semien …wow
Get over the Cubs! Just focus on your own challenges, of which there are plenty! It must be hard to be the “second baseball team is Chicago! Accept it, it will always be that way!! Loser!
When do we start holding Theo to task for the situation he’s created in Chicago v. The players he gave away?
Sports are fascinating because of this “championship or bust” culture intersects with the “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately” mindset. The Soler, Jimenez, and Torres trades look bad for the Cubs now, but all of the moves worked out as expected. Chapman was a rental but helped the Cubbies win a title; Quintana been a rotation mainstay, and Davis was a suitable closer for a year. Sucks for the Cubs to give up Torres, but no one cares who the Royals gave up to get Cueto. Can’t be afraid to go for it when you have a chance. Some prospects work out, some lose value. If Theo became available and my team needed a GM, I’d be begging him to lead my baseball ops.
Damn straight
I agree. The guys who are given up in those trades are just fodder for trash talkers from losing teams who hate the cubs. The teams who have traded with the cubs haven’t won a championship yet so even if they are excited to have these young guys, I’m sure they would rather be in the cubs position instead, not having those players and having a recent WS
With all that being said, it’s a pivotal offense for the Cubs. They’re in predicament of having a ton of talent, but not having a complete team. It all boils down to the successful teams are the ones that can produce talent from their own pipeline as long as possible. Astros, Dodgers, and Yankees aren’t going away anytime soon because they have the farm systems capable of identifying and developing their own talent. I feel the Cubs have largely operated as a traditional big market team (Short-term trades, big contracts, etc.). The bill always comes due.
Things have swung away from them. If either one of Q or Yu pan out, if Ian Happ would take it to the next level instead of regress among other things then the team wouldn’t have such a negative outlook right now.
If the Cubs had been more patient and let their young guys come up naturally instead of trading then they would look really good for the next few years but they probably wouldn’t have won a WS this century
You mean cubs position in 3rd place?
2016 champion, NLCS in 2017 and playoffs in 2018 and 3rd place in 2019. Yes, that is the position that I am talking about that the Yankees/White Sox/whoever else “fleeced” the cubs on these trades would love to have instead of the position they are currently in. But I understand that your posts and opinions on baseball are based on trashtalking and rivalry instead of objective opinions and transactional strategy. To be fair most people seem to be similar to you but I find it boring
Spot on!
Slow day at ole MLBTR. Here’s to a busy week ahead
Royals article that turns into a cub comment section . Awesome
I see what you’re saying, but this is more about Soler.
Signing big him to an extension will be a mistake. He is a DH who logged 1200 very average at bats before 2019.
He is what the royals want right now. This is exactly what they dreamed of when they traded Wade Davis.
Of course it was. One of the most lopsided deals ever.
No it isn’t because if Soler was still be on the Cubs, he’d have at least one 60-day IL stint a year. It’s a trade that benefited both teams according to their needs.
And no deal that involves the DH as the better return is one of the most “lopsided deals ever”. Heck, that wasn’t even the most lopsided deal of the 2017-2018 seasons.
What is Davis doing for the cubs now? Yes lopsided. Very very lopsided.
So far Solar has had one exceptional season on a team that didn’t do much competitively and Davis had one exceptional season on a team that made it to the NLCS. At most it is a wash at this point, certainly not one of the most lopsided trades in history. Geeze you are embarrassing yourself themed, hate on the cubs with intelligence. ChiSoxCity has this kind of posting covered already
@themed
Hahaha a bit dramatic there drama queen
As a Royals fan, I hate to say it but it wouldn’t devastate me if this move causes tumult with the contract extension negotiations thus prompting a deal with another team because I really feel this past season was an outlier (at least somewhat) & his past injury history is always troubling.
That said if a trade transpired, I don’t think KC should expect a huge return (based on the aforementioned issues) but at least a decent return focusing on his younger (27) age, potential which was met at least for this past season, and 2 years of controllability plus obvious openness to negotiate a new deal thus not necessarily wanting to go to free agency and based on this, I would imagine there’d be a market.
And by no means is Salvy Perez a 40 homer candidate. However he does have 30 homer potential & with his return from missing last season, he’d replace a fair chunk of Soler’s departed power.
The cubs finished in third place but there hot shot fans still think they have a dynasty going.
I’m a Cub fan. I don’t think they have a dynasty, so shut your pie-hole!