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Nick Solak

Pirates Re-Sign Nick Solak To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates brought Nick Solak back on a minor league contract, relays Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. He was briefly a free agent after being placed on waivers this week.

Solak spent a couple weeks on the big league bench after being called up in the middle of May. He went 1-11 with two strikeouts over the four games he played. He started twice at first base and one time in left field. It marked his first MLB action in two years. The Bucs dropped him from the roster when Nick Gonzales returned from an ankle fracture. Solak is out of options, so Pittsburgh needed to run him through waivers to take him off the MLB roster.

While Solak didn’t make an impact in his MLB cameo, the former second-round pick has destroyed Triple-A pitching this year. He’s hitting .393/.452/.625 with six homers across 126 plate appearances with their Indianapolis affiliate. He’s a career .291/.379/.472 hitter over parts of six Triple-A seasons. Solak has never found a great defensive home and has not gotten an extended MLB opportunity since his 2021 season with the Rangers. He’ll try to maintain his blistering early-season pace in the International League to earn another big league look later in the year.

Nick Solak Elects Free Agency

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Infielder/outfielder Nick Solak has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He was outrighted by the Pirates yesterday but has the right to reject that assignment since he has a previous career outright.

Solak, 30, will now head to the open market in search of his next opportunity. He settled for a minor league deal with the Pirates coming into the year and then got out to a great start. In 32 Triple-A contests, he put up a massive .393/.452/.625 batting line. That was partly due to an unsustainable .422 batting average on balls in play but Solak also hit six home runs while drawing walks at a 9.5% clip and only striking out 13.5% of the time.

That was enough to get him to the big leagues but he didn’t get much playing time in Pittsburgh. In almost three weeks on the roster, he only received 11 plate appearances in four games, recording just one single and no extra-base hits.

The Bucs nudged him off the roster when Nick Gonzales came off the injured list. Solak is out of options and therefore had to be removed from the 40-man entirely. The 29 other clubs all passed on the chance to grab him off waivers, so he’ll presumably be looking for another minor league deal in the coming days.

Broadly speaking, he has generally hit well in the minors but not the majors. He has a .250/.325/.369 line and 91 wRC+ in the big leagues. That includes a hot start when he was first promoted in 2019. Since then, he has a .243/.314/.350 line and 86 wRC+. Dating back to that same 2019 season, he has a .291/.379/.472 line and 118 wRC+ down on the farm.

Defensively, he’s played almost every position on the diamond but he’s not considered a strong fielder. In recent years, he’s mostly been limited to the outfield corners, first base and occasionally appearances at second base.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Pirates Outright Nick Solak

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The Pirates announced that infielder Nick Gonzales has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Infielder/outfielder Nick Solak has been sent outright to Triple-A Indianapolis as a corresponding move. Solak has the right to elect free agency though the Bucs didn’t give any indication that he would do so. Righty Kyle Nicolas has also been recalled to take the roster spot vacated by Tanner Rainey being designated for assignment yesterday.

Solak, 30, was added to the roster just over two weeks ago. He didn’t get much action between then and now, getting just 11 plate appearances in four games. He recorded one hit, a single, and struck out twice. There wasn’t any previous indication he had been removed from the 40-man roster but it seems the Bucs quietly put him on waivers in recent days, presumably knowing that they would need a roster spot for Gonzales.

Once a notable prospect with the Rangers, Solak burst onto the scene in 2019 but has floundered in his subsequent big league appearances. He hit five home runs in his first 33 big league games while drawing walks at an 11.1% clip. That led to a .293/.393/.491 line and 126 wRC+ in that small sample. But in 850 plate appearances since that debut, he has hit .243/.314/.350 for a wRC+ of 86.

He only got into two big leagues games in 2023 and was stuck in the minors throughout 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Pirates coming into 2025 and put up a huge .393/.452/.625 line in 32 Triple-A games. That was surely inflated by a .422 batting average on balls in play but he also had six home runs and a 9.5% walk rate. That got him up to the majors but, as mentioned, he didn’t get to play much.

Solak is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors without clearing waivers. Despite his huge Triple-A numbers this year, no club put in a claim. Since he has a previous career outright, he could elect free agency, though he would surely be limited to minor league offers. Whether it’s with the Pirates or another club, he figures to be getting playing time in Triple-A while hoping for a better major league chance in the future.

As for Gonzales, he suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left ankle during the first game of the season and has been on the IL since then. The seventh overall pick of the 2020 draft, he hasn’t hit much in the majors yet, with a .256/.300/.392 line and 88 wRC+ in 518 plate appearances. However, he put up a huge .301/.392/.531 line and 134 wRC+ in Triple-A over 2023 and 2024.

He has played a few different spots on the diamond but more second base than anywhere else. Gonzales is one of seven players the Bucs have used at the keystone this year. Adam Frazier has gotten the most playing time but Jared Triolo, Enmanuel Valdéz, Liover Peguero, Tsung-Che Cheng and Solak have also factored in. No one in that group has taken hold of the position so Gonzales might get a chance to seize it now that he’s healthy.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Pirates Select Nick Solak

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The Pirates made a move just before tonight’s game in Philadelphia, selecting second baseman/corner outfielder Nick Solak onto the big league club. Pittsburgh optioned Ji Hwan Bae to Triple-A Indianapolis to create an active roster spot, while recently-claimed utilityman Michael Helman was designated for assignment in the 40-man roster move.

Solak, 30, is back in the big leagues for the first time since 2023. The right-handed hitter only made two appearances that year, one apiece with the Braves and Tigers. He’d appeared in 35 games for Texas the year prior. His most recent regular MLB action came with the 2021 Rangers, when he suited up in 127 games and batted .242/.314/.362 with 11 home runs.

A former second-round pick by the Yankees, Solak has bounced around to various organizations over the past few seasons. He was viewed as a bat-first prospect without a clear defensive home. He hasn’t hit enough to make that work at the major league level, running a modest .252/.327/.372 slash line in nearly 1000 career plate appearances. Solak has reliably hit minor league pitching, including a .291/.379/.472 mark over parts of six Triple-A seasons.

This year is no exception. Solak is out to a massive .393/.452/.625 start through 32 games with Indianapolis. He leads the International League in average and ranks among the top four hitters (minimum 100 plate appearances) in both on-base percentage and slugging. He has connected on six homers and doubles apiece, plus one triple. He’s drawing walks at a decent 9.5% rate and has kept his strikeouts to a tidy 13.5% clip.

The Bucs are hoping he can carry a fraction of that production over against big league pitching. They’ve again had one of the sport’s weakest offenses. Solak draws into the lineup tonight at first base against Phils southpaw Ranger Suárez. The Pirates will activate lefty-hitting Spencer Horwitz either tomorrow or Sunday. Horwitz is going to be the primary first baseman, especially against righty pitching. Solak could see more playing time in left field, where neither Tommy Pham nor Alexander Canario has been effective. He’s out of options, so the Pirates could not send him back down to the minors without running him through waivers.

The move almost immediately costs Helman his roster spot. Pittsburgh had grabbed him off waivers from the Cardinals on Wednesday; he has yet to make an appearance in the organization. The 28-year-old Helman debuted with nine games for the Twins late last season. He was traded to St. Louis shortly before the start of Spring Training. Helman is out to an awful .185/.260/.292 start in Triple-A this year, but he hit .271/.350/.487 with 14 homers in 72 games at that level a year ago. Pittsburgh will likely place him back on waivers in the next few days.

@smokeymeats45 first reported that Solak was being called up.

Pirates Sign Nick Solak To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates have signed infielder/outfielder Nick Solak to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on his MLB.com player profile page. The deal presumably includes an invite to big league Spring Training.

Solak, 30 next month, was a second-round pick by the Yankees back in 2016 but has rarely stayed in one organization for more than a few seasons at a time to this point in his career. The journeyman was traded from New York to Tampa in the three-team swap that brought Brandon Drury to the Bronx prior to the 2018 season, and then was flipped to the Rangers by the Rays in a deal that proved to be something of a coup for Tampa as they landed right-hander Pete Fairbanks.

While Fairbanks went on to become a dominant righty for the Rays, Solak made his big league debut for the Rangers in 2019. It was an impressive cup of coffee, and he hit .293/.393/.491 (126 wRC+) in 135 plate appearances for the club. The strong showing earned him a more regular role with Texas over the next two seasons, but Solak generally looked somewhat over-matched at the plate during that time with a lackluster .218/.350/.357 (88 wRC+) slash line in 744 combined trips to the plate. That led to Solak spending the majority of the 2022 season in the minor leagues before a season-ending foot fracture took him out of the picture for the remainder of the year.

At the start of the 2022-23 offseason, Solak was traded from the Rangers to the Reds in a cash deal. While he remained with the Reds throughout the offseason, he was designated for assignment by the club once it became apparent that he wouldn’t make their Opening Day roster. That led Solak to ride the transactional carousel all throughout the 2023 campaign. He briefly played for the Mariners, White Sox, Braves, and Tigers over this time, leaving him to be part of six MLB organizations in a single calendar year through a series of trades and waiver claims. Eventually, Solak finally cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by Detroit in August and elected free agency last winter.

Solak signed on with the Mariners on a minor league deal back in January, and while he didn’t make it onto the big league club he enjoyed a solid season at Triple-A Tacoma. In 90 games for the club, he slashed a respectable .311/.406/.446 with an impressive 15.3% strikeout rate. Even in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, that performance was good for a wRC+ 20% better than league average. Solak re-entered the open market earlier this offseason and has now found a new home with the Pirates, for whom he can offer some valuable positional depth capable of playing all over the diamond. For a club that sported the league’s third-weakest offense in 2024, a versatile bat like Solak that has had flashed of MLB success in the past could be an attractive bench option or non-roster depth piece headed into the 2025 campaign.

Mariners To Sign Nick Solak To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners are signing infielder/outfielder Nick Solak to a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The CAA Sports client will also receive an invite to major league Spring Training.

Solak, 29, had a tremendous major league debut with the Rangers in 2019 but wasn’t able to maintain it in subsequent seasons. Originally a second-round pick of the Yankees, he was twice traded before getting to the big leagues. The Yanks flipped him to the Rays as part of a three-team trade that sent Steven Souza Jr. to the Diamondbacks and Brandon Drury to the Bronx, then the Rays sent Solak to Texas straight up for Pete Fairbanks.

In the 2019 campaign, Solak crushed in the minors and then carried that over into his first 33 big league contests. He hit five home runs in that time and drew walks in 11.1% of his plate appearances. His .293/.393/.491 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 126. But his production dipped in the 2020 season and hasn’t recovered. He has made 839 plate appearances in the majors over the past four seasons, hitting 16 home runs and walking at a 7% clip. His .246/.317/.354 slash line in that time translates to a wRC+ of 86.

There were questions about Solak’s second base defense while he was a prospect and the glovework has indeed become an issue. His work at the keystone was graded as subpar and he was pushed into a corner outfield role when the Rangers signed Marcus Semien. That move down the defensive spectrum made his lack of offensive production more of an issue, which pushed him off the roster. He was traded to the Reds going into 2023 but wasn’t going to crack the Opening Day roster in Cincinnati. They designated him for assignment and flipped him to the Mariners, but he went to the White Sox via a waivers a couple of weeks later. As the season went on, he was also claimed by Atlanta and Detroit, the latter club passing him through waivers in August.

For the Mariners, they are likely attracted to Solak’s right-handed bat. Their outfield depth leans left-handed, with each of Luke Raley, Taylor Trammell, Cade Marlowe, Dominic Canzone, Zach DeLoach and Jonatan Clase hitting from that side. Solak has hit .283/.363/.428 against southpaws in his career for a 117 wRC+, compared to a .236/.309/.343 and 78 wRC+ against righties.

That could perhaps allow him to carve out a role on the small side of a platoon arrangement in Seattle. He will first have to earn a roster spot and doesn’t have options in the event he succeeds. But if he manages to both get on the roster and stick, he still has less than three years of service time and could be retained for future seasons via arbitration.

Tigers Claim Andrew Vasquez, Designate Nick Solak

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Aug 6: The Tigers have announced that Solak has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Toledo. As Solak does not have the necessary service time to reject the assignment, he’ll likely remain in the organization through the end of the season as a depth option for the Tigers in the minor leagues.

Aug 4: The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve claimed lefty Andrew Vasquez off waivers from the Phillies and, in a corresponding move, designated infielder/outfielder Nick Solak for assignment.

Vaasquez, 29, was a somewhat surprising DFA following the trade deadline. He’s pitched to a sparkling 2.27 ERA in 39 2/3 innings this season, although the rest of his numbers don’t exactly signify that type of dominance. The lefty’s 20% strikeout rate is a few percentage points south of the league average, while his 8.2% walk rate and 43% ground-ball rate are right are both roughly average. Vasquez has stranded 86.6% of the baserunners he’s allowed this season — a fluky high number that’s likely bound for some regression. Fielding-independent metrics peg him more in the low-4.00s than in the low 2.00s.

That said, he was still an effective reliever for the Phils, and it was a genuine surprise to see him dropped from the 40-man roster over other DFA candidates. It’s not particularly surprising that a team with high waiver priority placed a claim. Only six teams (A’s, Royals, Rockies, Nationals, White Sox, Cardinals) had a higher waiver priority than Detroit. That group apparently passed on putting in a claim, but the Tigers will plug Vasquez, who’s out of minor league options, directly into the big league bullpen.

If things work out for Vasquez in Detroit, he could be a long-term piece of the relief corps. He’ll finish the season with one-plus year of big league service time, meaning Detroit can control him for another five years.

Solak, 28, continues to bounce throughout the league via the DFA circuit. He’s been with the Rangers, Reds, Mariners, White Sox, Braves and Tigers since November, never making it through waivers despite frequent DFAs. He was once a well-regarded prospect — a bat-first player whose defensive home was up for debate. Questions about Solak’s glove still persist, and his bat never developed as hoped at the Major League level. He’s a career .252/.327/.372 hitter in 974 big league plate appearances and is batting .226/.346/.363 between three Triple-A clubs this season.

With the trade deadline now passed, Solak will be placed on waivers once again and made available to all 29 other clubs.

This Date In Transaction History: Rays Acquire Pete Fairbanks

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Just under three weeks from the trade deadline, it’s still a little early for clubs to make moves of consequence. July is trade season but the majority of key acquisitions take place in the final week or so.

On this date four years ago, the Rays and Rangers lined up a deal that was more an interesting swap of young players than a pivotal deadline move. It was a one-for-one that sent reliever Pete Fairbanks to Tampa Bay and second base prospect Nick Solak to Arlington.

Fairbanks had some MLB experience, but neither player was an established big leaguer at the time of the trade. The right-hander had pitched in eight games for Texas. He averaged over 97 MPH on his heater but had allowed 10 runs in 8 2/3 frames. Solak hadn’t yet gotten to the majors; he was hitting .266/.353/.485 with 17 homers in Triple-A at the time of the deal.

Despite being the player without MLB experience, Solak was probably the more well-known of the two at the time. He’d been a 2nd-round selection of the Yankees a few years before. Solak was already involved in one notable trade, going to Tampa Bay in the 2018 three-team deal that sent Brandon Drury from Arizona to the Bronx.

Prospect evaluators consistently raised questions about Solak’s defensive acumen at second base. There was less trepidation about his offensive upside, though. He’d been an accomplished minor league hitter and was on the doorstep of the majors. Fairbanks had high-octane stuff but spotty control and had twice undergone Tommy John surgery as a minor leaguer, a big reason he was still unestablished by his age-25 campaign.

The initial returns looked promising for Texas. Solak debuted a month later and hit .292/.393/.491 over his first 33 MLB contests. He’d get the Opening Day nod in left field the next season. Fairbanks pitched 13 times for the Rays, allowing 10 runs across 12 1/3 frames.

Beginning in 2020, the deal swung definitively in Tampa Bay’s favor. Fairbanks was excellent in the shortened season, working to a 2.70 ERA while fanning a third of opponents in 27 regular season outings. He pitched nine times during the Rays’ run to the pennant, securing three saves and holds apiece in the playoffs. Fairbanks logged a career-high 42 2/3 innings the next year, working to a 3.59 ERA with 14 holds and a 29.7% strikeout rate.

Solak, on the other hand, never built off that strong debut. He hit .246/.317/.354 in a little more than 800 MLB plate appearances from 2020-22. Concerns about his defense were founded and pushed him more frequently to left field. Texas parted with him at the start of last offseason, trading him to the Reds for cash. Solak has consistently hit well in the upper minors but has bounced around via waivers and small trades since the Rangers moved on. He’s currently in Triple-A with the Tigers.

Fairbanks’ durability concerns have presented themselves over the past two years. He lost the first half of last season to a lat strain. He’s battled Raynaud’s syndrome, a condition that can lead to a cold numbness in the fingers, on a couple occasions. Hip inflammation cost him a few weeks earlier this year.

Still, the Rays have to be pleased with the work they’ve gotten out of Fairbanks. He’s one of their top relievers, owner of a 2.78 ERA in 123 regular season innings since the trade. He has allowed only six runs in 15 postseason frames over three seasons. The Rays signed him to a three-year deal in January, guaranteeing him $12MM to buy out his final three arbitration years and secure a 2026 club option.

No one would argue the Fairbanks trade was as impactful as acquiring the likes of Randy Arozarena or Isaac Paredes. It proved an adept pickup, though. Adding an effective late-inning arm for a young hitter who fell a bit short of expectations has paid off. The front office and coaching staff surely hope Fairbanks will continue to play a key role in postseason runs over the years to come.

Tigers Claim Nick Solak, Transfer Spencer Turnbull To 60-Day IL

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The Tigers announced that they have claimed infielder Nick Solak off waivers from Atlanta and optioned him to Triple-A Toledo. To make room on the 40-man roster, right-hander Spencer Turnbull was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Solak, 28, continues his journey around the league, as he has bounced from team to team quite a bit in the past seven months. He spent the past few years with the Rangers but was traded to the Reds for cash in November of last year. He then went to the Mariners on another cash deal before successive waiver claims took him to the White Sox, Atlanta and now the Tigers.

The fact that Solak keeps losing his roster spot and finding another is a reflection of the fact that he has continued to success in the minors while struggling in the majors. He debuted in the big leagues in 2019 with a .293/.393/.491 showing but has hit a diminished .246/.317/.354 since then. His Triple-A slash is much closer to that 2019 output, coming in at .286/.368/.493.

Several teams have grabbed him in the hopes of unlocking that kind of showing at the big league level but it hasn’t quite happened since that encouraging debut in Texas. The Tigers will now be next in line for the experiment. Defensively, he came up as a second baseman but his glovework was generally considered poor and he was moved to a corner outfield role when the Rangers signed Marcus Semien. The Tigers could theoretically move him back to the keystone, though he has played exclusively in the outfield so far this season.

The Detroit outfield has taken quite a few hits this year, as each of Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Austin Meadows and Matt Vierling are currently on the injured list. That leaves them with Akil Baddoo, Jake Marisnick and Zach McKinstry as their three regulars, with Tyler Nevin also factoring into the mix. Solak figures to give them a bit of depth for the time being, though he is in his final option year and will therefore be out of options next season.

As for Turnbull, he was placed on the injured list May 13 due to neck discomfort. He received an MRI on Monday, per Chris McCosky of Detroit News, and was cleared to start some activities but doesn’t seem close to a rehab assignment. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which rules him out until early July.

Braves Acquire Ben Heller, Designate Nick Solak

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The Braves have acquired right-hander Ben Heller from the Rays in exchange for international bonus pool space and optioned him to Triple-A Gwinnett, per a team announcement. Outfielder Nick Solak was designated for assignment in a corresponding roster move.

Heller, 31, was just designated for assignment by the Rays last week. Signed to a minor league deal in the winter, he had his contract selected in late May but was optioned back to the minors before getting into a game. In 18 games at the Triple-A level for the year, he’s logged 27 1/3 innings with a 3.95 ERA, 26% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 49.4% ground ball rate.

He has a bit of major league experience, getting into 31 games with the Yankees from 2016 to 2020 with a 2.59 ERA in that time. Unfortunately, he then spent much of 2021 and 2022 injured before landing with the Rays this year. Tampa frequently cycles pitchers on and off their roster throughout the season but it seems that Heller drew enough interest from clubs around the league that Tampa will get a little bit of extra money to spend on international amateurs.

For Atlanta, they’ve dealt with some challenges to their pitching staff, especially with starters Max Fried and Kyle Wright on the injured list and facing significant absences. They also have relievers Dylan Lee and Michael Tonkin on the IL, alongside Tyler Matzek who underwent Tommy John surgery last year. They will add Heller to their Triple-A club and have a bit of extra depth on hand for when they need a fresh arm. Heller is in his final option year and will be out of options next year. He has over three years of service time and will be eligible for arbitration this winter.

In addition to giving up a bit of bonus pool money, the club is also risking losing Solak. The 28-year-old once seemed like a potential building block for the Rangers when he debuted in 2019 and hit .293/.393/.491 in his first 33 games. He had always hit well in the minors and there was little reason to doubt he would continue to do so. Unfortunately, he slashed just .246/.317/.354 from 2020 to 2022. He was also pushed off second base both due to his subpar work there and the club signing Marcus Semien. He’s since spent more time in left field, which put more pressure on his bat to provide value.

In November, the club finally decided to cut bait and flipped Solak to the Reds for cash. He lasted on the Reds’ roster through the winter but was designated for assignment at the end of Spring Training. He then went to the Mariners in another cash deal but got the DFA treatment again just 10 days later. A couple of waiver claims then took him to the White Sox and Braves in the middle of April. Solak hit .272/.364/.444 for a 106 wRC+ in 173 plate appearances for Gwinnett. He struck out in just 15.6% of his plate appearances while walking at a 9.8% rate.

Now Solak has been given the DFA treatment yet again and might soon find himself in a sixth organization in less than a year. Despite the struggles at the major league level, he continues to hit in the minors. He’s in his final option year so some club could put in a claim and stash him in the minors. He’s been limited to left field this year but perhaps some club would give him another chance at the keystone. If he were to clear waivers, he would stick with the Braves since he has less than three years of service time and does not have a previous outright.

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