7:57pm: The Yankees and Phillies are in hardest on Soler now, Yahoo's Jeff Passan tweets.
5:21pm: Marlins president David Samson said on 790 the Ticket that the club doesn't have interest in Soler, MLB.com's Joe Frisaro tweets.
2:51pm: The Marlins are interested, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal hears Soler's power is comparable to that of Miami outfielder Mike Stanton — high praise to say the least.
12:59pm: The Blue Jays watched Soler and others Wednesday at the team's complex in the Dominican Republic, writes MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez. The Orioles will be in the D.R. to watch him Sunday. Sanchez lists the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Phillies, and Cubs as other interested parties.
WEDNESDAY, 8:26am: The Phillies are also interested in Soler, reports Olney.
TUESDAY, 2:18pm: The Yankees have serious interest in Soler, ESPN.com's Buster Olney tweets.
12:33pm: Many teams remain involved in the bidding for 19-year-old Cuban prospect Jorge Soler, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). The Cubs have been extensively linked to the outfielder, but they’re not the only club involved.
The Yankees are in on the bidding, tweets David Kaplan of CSN Chicago, and Heyman suggests the Marlins could be involved. Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald hears that “a good number” of teams have interest (Twitter link). Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus explained yesterday that Soler would rank 38th or 39th on his list of top prospects.
Sorry Cubs fans, but it is not a forgone conclusion that you’ll get Soler….
Thanks for clarifying that for us.
Heyman is the only source not reporting it all but a done deal for the Cubs. It’s obviously not a guarantee because he can’t legally sign yet. It will happen though.
Yes, just like the Marlins were a lock to sign Cespides.
No one said a deal with the Marlins was agreed to – you all just jumped to that conclusion as they were labeled the front runners. Not the same situation at all.
Soler isn’t a free agent. Assuming he’s signed is ridiculous. Should I assume that Appel is already signed with the Astros?
Please point out where I said he was already signed. I’ll wait.
Assuming a deal is in place (which is what I did, and what is likely the case according to multiple DR sources and Goldstein), is not, in fact, ridiculous.
Read Buster Olney’s latest tweet please.
And the difference between “assuming a deal is in place” and “assuming he’s signed” is really just semantics. We all realize that he can’t officially sign, but agreeing to a deal is effectively the same as signing since that’s as close as he can get right now.
There is a big difference between he is signed ( HE CANNOT SIGN YET) and a deal is in place. A deal in place means there is an offer sheet there for him to sign if e wants. Where as him being signed means… You guessed it he is signed. No one from the cubs has come
Out to say anything about him
Even being close
To
Signed. Nothing even leaked. It’s only the tribune saying there is a deal
In place
You’re making the literal argument. Which is exactly why i said that the argument was based on semantics.
When fans say “a deal is in place” they more often than not mean he’s signed. It’s just waiting to have the t’s crossed and i’s dotted.
I was simply restating his point using different language. Sorry it got you so worked up.
(ps – he can’t even negotiate, so regardless of language, my point stands).
No. You are wrong. A deal in place means that they have agreed, but not yet signed. Sometimes they fall through but it’s rare.
If there is an offer to sign it’s usually worded as “they have made him an offer,” and rarely does that mean anything beyond that.
The Orioles “made an offer” to Teixera. But it was laughable and there was no realistic chance of him signing.
Also, Soler’s agent has a history of agreeing to deals prior to an IFA being legally allowed to sign, so this is SOP.
“Sources: Yankees have serious interest on OFer Jorge Soler, among many teams. Cubs are not close to signing Soler, as has been reported.”- Buster Olney
I’m sure the Yankees do have interest. Doesn’t mean a deal isn’t in place. There are other sources saying there are – I choose to not believe the ex-Yankee writer who thinks someone from the NE is on every single signing.
Until his signature is on the paper, there is no deal.
Until his signature is on the paper, there is no deal.
This is a joke, right?
Buster Olney is one of the most well connected sportswriters in the business. We’re not talking about Peter Gammons here.
Love the resolve to refuse to believe the obvious though. Nice commitment.
How is Soler NOT a free agent? Am I missing something here? The “bidding” mentioned is nothing like that of Darvish. Couldn’t he sign with anyone he wants?
He hasn’t been approved as a free agent by MLB (nor has he been given permission to work in the US by the government).
He also has not established residency outside of Cuba meaning he can’t even be approved yet.
It’s actually working against the cubs that it was reported what they are offering. Because now teams know the cubs deal is 26 million. Teams have a jumping off point now.
Soler would be a good move for the Yanks, it would give them two top prospects in the OF along with Mason Williams. If the Yanks want him they will out bid most teams for him. This may be the reason why the Yanks are trying to trade Burnettt
I would like to see the Yanks get Soler too. They have done a good job developing OF recently.
Like who? Gardner is great to have, but other than that they haven’t developed much from their own farm. Melky has had 1 good season, and that seems fueled by a higher than normal BABIP, and Austin Jackson strikes out 1/4 of his at bats and doesn’t have the OBP to justify it.
I think the the operative word is “recently”. However, the reasons you choose to discount Melky and AJ seem odd. First, remove yourself from the though that every prospect MUST turn into a superstar to be considered a good prospect. If a prospect, who wasn’t an early round selection and wasn’t a high priced international signee turns into a everyday player then that’s a success.
At one point the Yanks had Gardner, AJax, Tabata and Melky all in the minors at the same time. That’s pretty good. 4 everyday players with a collective WAR of about 13 (average of over 3 WAR per player).
Also, the next wave looks pretty good as well with Mason Williams, Ravel Santana, Slade Heathcott, Ramon Flores, Daniel Lopez, Tyler Austin, Ben Gamel and some high ceiling long shots like Yeicok Calderon, Kelvin De Leon and Eduardo Sosa. Guys like Melky Mesa and Zolio Almonte are guys who are at a high level but neither has mastered AA yet, so it’s hard to say they are “real” prospects.
Goldstein was talking about Soler and the Cubs like it was a done deal yesterday on twitter…
Interesting…my comment (the first one) indicating that it isn’t a forgone conclusion that Soler is going to the Cubs is removed, but this comment is not.
Because the first comment was an “attack” against Cubs fans, not asking a question about a report/tweet.
That was an attack?
I think it has been pretty clear that the Cubs have been labeled the front runners for Soler and the posts on MLBTR have indicated as much. As a matter of fact, I have trouble coming up with another team as strongly linked to Soler so far.
Therefore, if you read through the comments for Cespedes/Soler, you’ll find Cubs fans indicating their excitement for the upcoming signing of Soler. Cubs fans should be excited…they are frontrunners for a solid prospect.
This latest news indicates that other teams are in on him as well, so the Cubs may not be as strongly linked as we all thought…ie, sorry cubs fans, don’t pop the bottles of champagne yet lest you feel like the marlins fans do today (or Nats fans after Prince). It’s no fun to get your hopes up for a player only to have them dashed when another team comes in.
Congrats on having your comment un-removed.
Like Burnett to the Pirates huh?
Or Cespedes to the Marlins
Would love to see the Phillies pull an Oakland and come out of no where for this guy. None of our toolsy outfielders look like they’re going to pan out besides Domonic Brown… maybe Gillies if he stays healthy but that’s a big “if.”
For whatever reason though, the front office doesn’t like to take a chance with these big name international free agents. I think our last big bonus was Carlos Tocci at $800 k (which is a lot, don’t get me wrong).
James can still pan out.
Maybe. Defensively he’s there but he needs to start making some more contact/walk more.
I’m curious to see the numbers he puts up in Reading. Clearwater/Lakewood are notorious pitcher’s parks in pitcher friendly leagues.
I would Love to see Oakland pull another Oakland
How is a frontrunner for Soler determined? Has he expressed a preference to play with one club over all others? If this is truly a competitive bidding process, I’m sure his agent will take a “frontrunning” bid back around to all interested parties at least one more time, at which time any team with the true desire to pay for him will be able to win…
Probably based on who has shown the most interest in a player and is willing to spend more. I don’t think the actual player’s thoughts are factored in very much at all when writers declare a “frontrunner”
Someone has suggested, and I agree, that the reason they Yankees are about to deal Burnett is so they can trim payroll so they can more easily afford Soler. The DH they buy once Burnett is gone is only going to cost them $1-2 mill tops and only for this season. Next season, they have more salaries coming off the payroll (e.g. Mariano) so they can avoid the luxury tax…
Soler would mostly cost a signing bonus. Which as far as I know does not go into the luxury tax. So I find it unlikely the Yankees are trying to move Burnett to sign Soler.
Bonuses DO go into the luxury tax. Anything that a player is paid does. For example a $200k bonus for an All Star bid counts against the luxury tax as soon as that player makes the All Star team and that money ends up in his pocket. I’m not 100% clear if it would be averaged out over the life of the contract for luxury purposes or if it is only averaged out for the years remaining when the payout happens.
This assumes that Soler is on the 40 man roster, which I assume he would be.
he hasnt said anything, its cubs fans wishing he would be on the cubs. as a matter of fact anything is possible, even the A’s could sneak in an steal him like they did cespedes…
Lol I think Heyman has “suggested” that the Marlins are in on every free agent..
I really hope these reports are accurate and Soler will sign the Cubs when he’s available. Gonna have to re rate the Cubs top 10 I’ll take shot at it.
1.) OF Jorge Soler (If signed)
2.) OF Brett Jackson
3.) SS Javier Baez
4.) 1B Anthony Rizzo
5.) OF Matt Szczur
6.) P Trey McNutt
7.) P Dillon Maples
8.) C Welington Castillo
9.) SS Junior Lake
10.) P Rafeal Dolis or 3B Josh Vitters
doesnt matter if the yankees are very serious about him.
The Yankees will not get soler, it the same way that prince and the nationals and cespedes and the marlins were linked together but then the mystery team swooped in and picked them up,the yankees are going to try to save money for a deadline deal or a big name next off season they are not known to invest in young talent so dont count on the yankees signing him.
yeah it’s not like we invested in Montero, Sanchez, or anyone else I even remember a certain highly touted SS prospect the Yanks offered the most money for, but lost to the blue jays since he thought he’d be blocked by Jeter, which he had every right to do. THe Yankees get involved, and will if they like what they see, as has been demonstrated in the past
I haven’t seen any numbers on Soler as far as a fair contract, what is he worth? I’m thinking 5/25.
#SolerPower
Every team linked to Soler is only going to end up losing out to the next “mystery team.” Count on it.
so what? it makes it more interesting
There should be a lottery to settle this.
Soler and his agent sets the parameters of what he wants in his contract and all interested teams accept this before the lottery is run. The winner will be decided by whoever has the winning number. If the winning team tries to renege on the deal they will be fined “One Million” dollars. This way it will prevent front running like the Yankees are trying to do or baloney heads like the Orioles saying they are interested when in fact they are not. In other words it will force the team to make a decision. Because this whole process has gotten out of hand, it really has!
bologna*
Bologna has more to do with the sandwich meat or the Italian city whereas baloney is slang here in the US for absurdity.
Bud Selig would rig the lottery.
Okay none of those guys are going to be impact players. I cant wait to see what Cespedes, Choice,parker, peacock and the other prospects do
GO A’s
you better hope they do the dew
I’m hearing the mystery team is the Blue Jays.
C’mon Mystery Team from Detroit!!!
Mystery team has to be Detroit … why wouldn’t they be in on this guy?
detroits already said their not in on him, didnt they?
They haven’t said anything about him as far as I know. They don’t seem to be into collecting prospects. Makes me sad. If only teams ran the way I GM mine in MLB The Show. All top prospects and a killer 25 man roster. Oh, video games……
Cubs favorites? The way this offseason has gone I have already ruled out the Cubs as a possibility.
I think this is a perfect time to say… Ozzie Guillen is the beginning of the end for the Marlins. As the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs have taught us, you can’t buy a championship. And next year this time, the Marlins will be stuck with the same players that failed them in 2012.
Sorry. I’m a Cub Fan and that scene is looking all to familiar!
the yanks and sox have bought plenty of championships.
Marlins bought themselves won in 2003.
Get it right they bought one in 97 in 03 they had the smallest of payrolls.
No team “buys” a championship. You “buy” players and when they play right and the world is with you then you win championships. What does Ozzie have to do with their downfall? He isn’t the GM or owner anyway.
What does Ozzie Guillen have to do with the payroll?
Nice…jorge is letting some friends know here in santo domingo that he is signing with the new york yankees by friday….congratulations Yankees fans.
Oh so you know friends of his huh?
I hope you’re right on this one.
hopefully your right about that one.
Alot of teams in on Soler, I think that means the price is going up and Soler will be a big over pay.
He’s one of the last international free agents that teams can overpay for. It’s not too surprising considering what Cespedes got.
19 years old, ranked no higher than 38th—and teams are willing to throw millions at him? I don’t get it.
What do you think the value of a top 50 prospect is?
Who was the last 19-year-old draft outfield prospect you saw fetch a $20 million deal beofre stepping foot on an American professional field?
When was the last time a draft prospect was able to negotiate with all 30 teams and play them off of each other to increase his signing bonus? That’s the difference people don’t notice here. If Strasburg came out of college and all teams could bid on him, he’d get way more than what he ended up with.
He’d get at least 75 mill
exactly, he could get more than darvish got
To be clear, Darvish didn’t get that money. The team that sold him did.
So you’re telling me the Nippon Ham Fighters also receive the 60 million dollars from the 6 year contract he signed in addition to the 51.7 million posting fee?
not 9 million bucks like the a’s gave cespedes..thats for sure.
It’s not likely the yankees have any real interest. Soler isn’t anywhere near 35 years old and has no history of PED use. He hardly fits the pin stripe mold.
The yankees average age is 28…
I have a hard time believing this, but I’m too lazy to fact check.
ESPN says the Yankees’ average age is 28.6.
Yes, but that includes a bunch of random players.
If by random you mean their 40-man roster, then yes, very random indeed.
Who’s ages are you averaging there? It’s certainly not guys at the top of the depth charts.
Okay they might as well just title the article “Every team in baseball is intrested in Soler” because that is pretty much the case.
I think the mystery team will get him. Just a hunch
I said it yesterday My sources are telling me the Blue Jays are the mystery team here. J/k
he will look good beside prince fielder and yu darvish in blue jay uniforms for years to come
Hope the Sox suprise us and grab this guy.
I get the feeling they only say “powerful like Stanton” just so the Marlins can get in and drive up the price.
why would they care if the price was driven up . Its not like his agent is the one comparing him to stanton
And it’s not like his agent mentions mystery teams either.
They said the same power thing about Cespedes.
Cubs that’s what PSD MLB forum is reporting but I say Marlins so Emilo to 2B.
He’s not going to be MLB ready, at least that’s the assumption.
hmmm not surprised the braves are not on the list.
I think Soler will go to the Cubs or Yankees. With that being said – I am SURE he won’t go to either of those teams and sign with a team that has not been mentioned in any of these threads.
Mike Stanton type of power is VERY rare to have in young players.
I really doubt Soler has that much power potential.
I think he would be more powerful if he just took steroids.
Please tell us about the evidence you have to doubt Soler’s power potential.
I wonder how Soler’s power will fare during night games?
I don’t know..I hope the hype doesn’t ‘eclipse’ his talent.
He might have to develop a wind mill swing to overcome that short coming.
Can we please get international players into the Rule 4 draft at some point?
Can he take a walk? Or is he another Wily Mo Pena?
I bet Soler signs with the team he has the best relationship with and feels comfortable with. The Royals were near gone favorites for Elier Hernandez and I believe he took a little less with them because of his comfort level with them.
I could see the same thing happening with this player.
Read: The Marlins failed a good number of times when they were candid about buying some highly sought-after guys, so now they’re trying to play it cool.
My guess is the Tigers sneak into the bidding for this guy. They really wanted Cespedes and have never been shy to promote guys at young ages.
“The Yankees and Phillies are in hardest on Soler now”
That’s what she said.
Don’t understand why the Mets wouldn’t at least look at this guy. They could give him a backloaded contract. I’d assume he would at least play one full season in the minors.
“The Yankees and Phillies are in hardest on Soler now” Yahoo’s Jeff Passan says…
Michael Bluth from Arrested Development would say, “There must be a better way to say that.”
Anyway I’m going with mystery team because they have been winning a lot of the free agents.
This is your chance to replace Anthony Gose/Michael Taylor/Jonathon Singleton/Domingo Santana Ruben! Get it done please!
What have any of these players done to deserve huge contracts for multiple years?? If these teams have this much money laying around, why not put it into developing some of our homegrown talent???
They haven’t done anything. They’re being paid based on potential.
… to answer your question though, most of these teams do.
Come on Nationals!
That’s what she said.
“7:57pm: The Yankees and Phillies are in hardest on Soler now”
That’s a horrible, horrible choice of words.
Excited to see the Phillies front office willing to take a risk like this.
Well I realize most teams do, but I would like the teams that are bidding on these unproven talent to dump 35 more million into their farm systems instead of one player who odds are against.
Breaking news: Kevin Grey predicts he will sign with the Blue Jays tomorrow at 1 pm. Told by his reliable sources… and press conference at 1 also..
Right after the press conference introducing Darvish?
Yup, and he said its moved to 3 pm now..Stay tune guys..
Nice.
Your so funny man.
Gray’s source screwed up, not him. It was also not a prediction, it was from the source, if it was a prediction than what would be wrong with it? If you had his job you would be 100% right, 100% of the time, right?
I’d rather see the Yankees sign him and have the Philies continue being old and decrepit
102.