Jorge Soler is getting practically as far-off from Miami as he presumably can. The 6’4” energy hitter has agreed to a three-year, $42 million take care of the San Francisco Giants. Susan Slusser broke the information of the deal, and Mike Rodriguez reported the phrases.
Soler, who debuted with the Cubs in 2014 and likewise performed for the Royals, Braves, and Marlins, opted out of the third and ultimate yr of the deal he signed with Miami, capitalizing on the second-best season of his 11-year profession each by way of well being and total manufacturing. Soler ranked nineteenth on our Prime 50 Free Brokers record, and his deal is simply $1 million per yr under the three years and $45 million that each Ben Clemens and MLB Commerce Rumors predicted for him. The deal additionally nets Soler $1 million greater than this yr than the $13 million he would have made had he stayed with the Marlins.
There’s loads of threat right here. Soler was an All-Star in 2023, the World Sequence MVP in 2021, and the American League residence run champ in 2019. He obliterates four-seam fastballs, and he’s the form of participant who can go on a tear and put a workforce on his again. He’s additionally about to show 32, and he missed half the 2022 season attributable to again and pelvis accidents. The 1.9 WAR he put up in 2023 was not solely the second-best mark of his profession, however simply the second time he even surpassed 0.7, the full he recorded as a 22-year-old rookie in 2014. Soler has appeared in 100 video games solely 4 occasions in his 11 years within the huge leagues. It’s encouraging that three of these 4 seasons came visiting the previous 5 years, however gamers (and people usually) don’t normally see their well being enhance as they transition into their mid-30s.
Furthermore, Soler doesn’t contribute on the bases or with the glove, and he’s greatest fitted to a DH position. Soler spent simply 42 video games within the outfield in 2023. Which may not sound like a lot to you, however the defensive metrics agreed that it was approach, approach an excessive amount of. Over the course of Soler’s 11 seasons, the 4 main defensive metrics — DRS, DRP, OAA, and UZR — have been unanimous of their contempt for his glove. Mixed, these 4 programs have evaluated Soler’s protection 42 occasions (11 seasons tracked by DRS, DRP, and UZR, plus 9 by OAA). Of these 42 scores, 38 have been destructive, three gave Soler a ranking of precisely 0, and only one was optimistic — when DRP credited Soler with 0.8 runs prevented in 2019.
Regardless of Soler’s dreadful protection, San Francisco will use him at occasions within the outfield, seemingly as a solution to spell Michael Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski in opposition to left-handed pitching. Below former supervisor Gabe Kapler, the Giants blended and matched out of necessity, but additionally by design; even with a brand new skipper, Bob Melvin, that development is prone to proceed to some extent contemplating the personnel on their roster. Over the previous three seasons, San Francisco has had simply six gamers qualify for the batting title and eight complete certified player-seasons. (Yastrzemski and Thairo Estrada every have certified twice within the final three years.) Solely three groups have had fewer certified seasons, and half of the foremost league golf equipment have had at the very least 12 in that span. However irrespective of how regularly Melvin makes him put on a glove, Soler will slot into the lineup properly by offering actual manufacturing from the proper facet of the plate, one thing the workforce sorely lacked final yr.
For now, although, let’s set our reservations apart for a minute and admire the stylistic match. It’s arduous to consider a workforce that wants energy greater than the San Francisco Giants, and it’s arduous to take a look at Jorge Soler and consider something aside from energy. In case you peruse different articles about this signing, you’ll come throughout a number of variations of the phrase slug. Relying in your outlet of alternative, the Giants have variously signed up for 3 years of “slugger Jorge Soler,” “veteran slugger Jorge Soler,” “Free-Agent Slugger Jorge Soler,” “former Miami Marlins slugger Jorge Soler,” “slugging outfielder Jorge Soler,” and even “slugger and former World Sequence MVP.” All of those descriptions are apt. He’s not up there to hit Soler flares. Soler slugs.
The Giants might use a few of that. Famously, no Big has had a 30-homer season since a 39-year-old Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004 (until you’re counting Jeff Samardzija and Madison Bumgarner, who allowed 30 homers in 2017 and 2019, respectively). The truth is, over that very same time-frame, Soler has the identical variety of seasons with 27 or extra residence runs because the Giants do: three. The distinction is that solely 4 occasions has Soler been wholesome sufficient to accrue 400 plate appearances in a season, whereas the Giants have had 109 totally different player-seasons attain that threshold over the previous 24 years.
In 2023, the Giants ranked nineteenth in residence runs, twenty third in ISO and exit velocity, and Twenty seventh in slugging. A few of that has to do with Oracle Park, which, based on Statcast’s park components, ranks because the Twenty seventh-worst park for residence runs for each left-handed and right-handed batters. However that’s why you go get somebody as highly effective as Soler (or, for that matter, Arson Choose), who hits moonshots that may be no-doubters wherever. In keeping with Statcast, if he’d performed all of his video games in San Francisco final yr, Oracle Park would have price Soler simply 4 of his 36 residence runs. Furthermore, after spending two years at loanDepot park — one of many three stadiums that make it even more durable for righties to go away the yard than Oracle — there’s little likelihood that he’ll be intimidated and a significantly better likelihood that he’ll be the primary participant to launch a ball into that big baseball mitt above the left area bleachers. Or perhaps Soler, who has hit six opposite-field residence runs with an estimated distance of at the very least 400 toes, will develop into the primary right-handed participant to ship a ball into McCovey Cove.
Nonetheless, Soler alone isn’t going to resolve San Francisco’s issues on offense. In keeping with ZiPS, Soler’s projected SLG of .441 ranks a hundred and first within the majors, and the second Big doesn’t come till Wilmer Flores checks in at a hundred and seventieth, with a mark of .423. The shortage of slug is an issue, in fact, but it surely isn’t as a lot of a problem because the workforce’s total lack of offensive manufacturing, and Soler can’t repair that on his personal, both.
ZiPS tasks newcomer Jung Hoo Lee as San Francisco’s greatest hitter, with a 112 wRC+, one spot above LaMonte Wade Jr. That ranks them 84th and eighty fifth total, and so they’re the workforce’s solely gamers within the prime 120. The one groups with much less illustration within the prime 120 are the A’s and the Rockies. ZiPS tasks a 106 wRC+ for Soler, which is comprehensible when you think about that earlier than final yr, when he posted a 126 wRC+, he had not recorded a single-season mark above 107 since 2019, when his wRC+ was 136. Even when Soler exceeds his projections, San Francisco’s lineup might nonetheless use some assist, and there aren’t that many bats left on the market.