Jorge Carlos Soler Castillo

He is a prominent Cuban baseball player. He is characterized by his tremendous power at bat, thanks to an impressive physique; in the field he plays the outfield. He bats and fields right-handed. He plays for the Kansas City team.

He made his major league debut on August 27, 2014, is 6′ 4″ tall and weighs 215 lbs. He wears number 12 on his uniform.

Soler left the country at a young age with aspirations of trying out in the MLB, for this reason his career in the Cuban Major Leagues was not extensive. He participated briefly in the National Series with the Industriales team. He was part of the national team that attended the 2010 Youth World Championship. In the competition he achieved a batting average of .304, his slugging percentage was .522, and he also received 9 walks.

In 2011 he established residency in Haiti, where he was observed by talent scouts from several Major League teams. On June 30, 2012, he signed a contract with the Chicago Cubs for nine seasons and thirty million dollars.

MLB
2014 Season
In January of that year Soler appeared in position number 49 on the list of the 100 prospects of the Major Leagues, according to a specialized blog.

He missed much of April and May due to hamstring injuries in both legs; management then decided that Soler should continue accumulating experience before moving up to the Majors, but they soon found that the Minor Leagues were too small for him. There the Cuban batted .338, with 15 home runs (8 with Iowa and 7 with Double A Tennessee) and 54 RBIs.

The No. 5 prospect of the Chicago Cubs made his major league debut on August 27, 2014. In that game he connected two hits (including a home run) in four official at-bats, with two RBIs and two runs scored. At the end of the season, in just 24 games and at only 22 years old, he had hit five home runs, with an offensive average of .292, .330 OBP, .573 SLG, and .903 OPS.

2015 Season
In this season he played in 101 games. He hit ten home runs, achieved an offensive average of .262, .324 OBP, .399 SLG, and .723 OPS. Among his statistics, it stood out that he needed to reduce his strikeout rate (121 in 101 games). On the other hand, Soler did not seem to be a strong defender or an exemplary baserunner, but his power showed promise.

In the postseason he showed his talent against the Mets, Cardinals, and Pirates. He participated in seven games, in which he connected nine hits in nineteen official at-bats, including three home runs, scored six times, achieved an equal number of walks, and drove in five runs. His offensive average was a very high .474, with .600 OBP and 1.105 SLG. Numbers that could generate good omens for a batter of 23 years old.

2016 Season
An injury kept him off the field for a couple of months. His strikeout percentage dropped over the year from 30 to 25, while the BB/SO ratio showed notable growth, from 0.26 to 0.47; he batted .238 with 12 home runs and 31 RBIs in 86 games.

After three seasons with the Chicago Cubs, in which he was even part of the championship the young cubs won, on December 7, Soler was traded to the Royals. The Cubs had to sacrifice one of their talents for the closer they needed. The Cuban would play with the Kansas City Royals, becoming the owner of the right field there.

This trade was seen as a win-win by both teams, basically filling what they needed. Soler would benefit from extensive playing time, above 130 games, which essentially was what he needed to continue developing as the promise that everyone always expected to see.

2017 Season
It was a year of disappointment for the slugger no matter how you look at it, as he suffered a tremendous decline in his offensive production and playing time in the Big Show. He suffered an injury in spring training, a situation that prevented him from starting the regular season on time.

On April 21, he started a rehabilitation program in the minors in order to get in shape to move up to the big club and finally make his debut with the Royals. He played in 11 games and got 12 hits in 39 official at-bats, averaging .308, with three home runs and seven RBIs, plus five walks. So far, so good.

Once he was ready and promoted, the story was different for Soler. They gave him a trial throughout May and in 55 official opportunities he got only nine hits, along with three doubles and one home run. His average was .164. They sent him down, he came back up a month later and didn't perform well either.

In total, he only played 35 games and batted .144 with the bat (14 hits in 97 at-bats), with 7 runs scored, five doubles, two home runs, 6 RBIs, 12 walks, 36 strikeouts, and a modest .245 OBP; his OPS was .503, quite poor, even for a player who isn't hitting home runs.

He showed a better version in Triple A. In 74 games he had an average of .267, with 24 home runs, 59 RBIs, .388 OBP, and .564 slugging.

In his first four seasons in MLB (2014-2017) he batted only .244, with 29 home runs and 104 RBIs in just 246 games. Far too little for such abundant talent. Soler still owes himself a great season, beyond the flashes of quality he has occasionally shown.

2018 Season
He connected the 52,000th hit by a Cuban player in the best baseball in the world.

Certainly, some injuries have slowed Soler's development, but people who have worked close to him—who also highlight his human quality—point out that he must work much harder on his mental strength, on how to overcome adversity and assert himself in high-pressure situations. For 2018 he must improve his BB/K% rate, 26.8% with pitches in the strike zone, the worst among Cubans in 2017. He will also have to improve his discipline, 163 strikeouts in 162 games.