5:30pm: Heyman adds another caveat to Soler's deal (Twitter link). Soler will be allowed to opt out of the agreed-upon salaries and go to arbitration once he is eligible. That scenario would likely push the total value of the deal beyond $30MM.
1:48pm: Soler and the Cubs agreed to a nine-year deal worth approximately $30MM, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. At least three or four teams placed bids of $20MM plus, according to Heyman. Depending on how long Soler spends at the minor league level, the deal could cover all of his arbitration seasons and multiple free agent years.
Soler can opt out of his yearly salaries and file for arbitration once eligible, ESPN.com's Keith Law reports. As Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports explains, this means Soler could earn more than $30MM with the Cubs.
1:15pm: The Cubs won the bidding for Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (on Twitter). Many teams appeared to have interest in Soler, a top international prospect.
Soler has to sign by July 2 if he aims to maximize his earning potential and avoid spending restrictions imposed under baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement. It's not clear what kind of bonus the Praver Shapiro Sports Management client will obtain from the Cubs, but a sum in excess of $15MM would not be surprising.
MLB declared Soler a free agent earlier this month after verifying his paperwork. The Phillies have since offered him a contract and the Astros, Pirates, Indians, Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays also appeared to have some level of interest in the 20-year-old.
Soler was an up-and-coming power hitter in Cuba before leaving the country, according to Ben Badler of Baseball America. His calling card is right-handed power, according to Jim Callis of Baseball America, who considers him a top-50 prospect in MLB.
I don’t like the wording of that headline. I realize it’s nitpicking, but it should say they signed Soler. I don’t remember an article saying the Angels won the bidding for Albert Pujols. Same logic applies. The Cubs SIGNED or AGREED TO TERMS WITH Jorge Soler.
But there were bids accepted and the Cubs had the highest bid.
While there wasn’t an actual bidding system like there is with Japanese players, the agent had teams submit (at least) two rounds of bids for Soler, so they actually did win the “bidding.”
It was two rounds of offers. Not bids. It was a free agent contract like any other and should be treated as such. I don’t really care, except that I’ve seen enough people confused into thinking this was some sort of posting process due to people constantly using that wording. Maybe the average MLBTR poster doesn’t fit that group, but enough people read this site that are just casual fans.
See below (post by Anthony JP). He was confused into thinking this was like the posting system.
While it might be good to explain the process in more detail so there’s no confusion with the NPB posting system, the statement that they “won the bidding” is not an incorrect or inaccurate statement. The agent essentially turned it into an auction when he had teams make multiple rounds of (presumably) increasing offers; that’s literally the definition of bidding.
That implies that Soler was unable to choose a secondary “bid” if he didn’t like the organization that put forth the highest number, which just isn’t true.
It doesn’t imply anything like that, just like in an auction the seller can accept any offer he wants to, it’s the process that makes it bidding.
Is that actually true about auctions? I’m not questioning you, I just had never heard of such a thing.
And if that’s what we’re saying with Soler, we may as well say that about every single free agent from here on out, because they operate in the same manner.
Unless you consign your item over to the auction company and agree to take whatever they sell it, it’s yours to do whatever you want with until you sign it over to someone else.
And that’s not really what happens with most free agents; for the most part teams make offers individually and negotiate with the player/agent individually until he comes to terms with one of the teams. This was the agent playing all of the teams against each other by making them make offers to the player at the same time and telling asking them to make additional offers higher than the previous highest to stay in consideration; that does kind of happen with normal free agents sometimes (where the agent says “hey so-and-so team offered this, will you beat it”) and do you know what it’s referred to as when that happens? A “bidding war.”
They “won the bidding” between 4 large market teams. That’s ok – the Cubs are bad no matter how much money they spend.
We will see you in a couple of years. Until then, gets your kicks in while you can.
True that. Go Cubs!
The Astros, Pirates, and Indians are large market teams?
Houston is a pretty big market actually
NY, Philly, and Boston are the biggest spending in that order. Can’t imagine they couldn’t have outbid the Cubs if this was really worth the gamble. My assumption is they overpaid. Smacks of desperation from a GM trying to prove he was responsible for red sox rise.
Who said they couldn’t outbid the Cubs?
Dan, you still the same way? Things havent taken quite a turn since 2012.
We kind of figured Boston was out (or I did) when the leak regarding the Taiwanese sign of Lin was sort of let out a few days back at 2m..
Only 1 time in recent history has Boston doled out even close to 2m+ for 2 the same year and we can figure to sign Soler would have eclipsed more than those 2 combined (Venicio + Iglesias) did in ’09.
I never thought that Sox would be all that serious for him. My guess is they set a (fairly conservative) value on him, and stopped there.
They won the big to have negotiating rights with Soler, they have not signed him to anything yet.
Incorrect. This isnt buying the player away from a team where you need to pay for a posting fee.
This is exactly what I was talking about. People don’t understand because of the term “bid”
Thats because thats not how things like this work – the Cubs have likely NOT signed him yet. Soler has accepted their bid as the winning bid and will sit down with the Cubs front office staff to hammer out the details and actually sign the paperwork, at which time you’ll be free to say “The Cubs Signed Soler”
Hence me also saying “agreed to terms”
His agent basically turned this into an auction. It’s not inaccurate.
So maybe the Cubs had the highest bid, but they didn’t “win” anything by placing the highest bid. It doens’t matter if the Cubs bid $1 Billion, Soler can still sign with someone else if he chooses.
he could have excepted any of the bids… my guess is the highest was what he wanted and so he picked it… probably not real rooting interest in any team
Interesting.
No mystery team this time, haha.
He’s cursed now.
Awesome! When your team is the worst in baseball, you take good news where you can find it!
Hmm, “I hear” is hardly a definitive source.
Ill take it!
This is strange or at least in my opinion it is.
They have a very talented athlete in Matt Szczur.
He’s only in High A ball.
Where is Soler going? I can’t believe Soler is that much better than Szczur.
I am sure that Soler will be paid quite a bit more.
Soler is purely a right fielder and has been deemed by many to be only ready for low-a Peoria at this point.
he’ll go to RF while szczur continues to play CF
apparently teams need more than one outfield prospect these days
weird.
They already have Soriano locked in place for 2 more seasons.. Nooo problems in the Cubbie OF at all..
His contract is up after next season…so I’m sure where 2 more seasons come in, but he is done with the Cubs and comes off the books after the 2013 season.
Cots has him signed through 2014.. Is that incorrect?
8 years/$136M (2007-14)signed by Cubs as a free agent 11/06$8M signing bonus07:$9M, 08:$13M, 09:$16M, 10-14:$18M annually
I’m pretty sure it is correct because we keep hearing (from multiple sources, not just those on the Internet) that he’s owned over $40MM. That would require two more full years even at that god-awful salary.
Hey.. I am with you all the way there… Have watched him a few games the last 2 years..
for someone who is not big playing the OF.. he is just a terrible defensive LF, almost Jason Bay terrible out there and if he would be pitch selective at the plate (which he never was) his power bat + salary would be more able to move to some AL team as a DH.
If Bay’s deal with NY wasn’t an option for 2014, would suggest the Cubs and mets swap Soriano for Bay.. neither is going to help the current team and IMO, Bay could have a decent career again at a field like Wrigley.. Soriano don’t think will ever do anything and not trying to knock the guy.. He is just done.
I’m not a big Soriano fan, but he has looked decent lately. Bob Brenly, one of the Cubs’ announcers (and of course former manager of the D-Backs) made an interesting point a couple days ago: Soriano was DH’ing against the Twins, and he remarked about how much more able he looked at the plate late in the game when he was DH’ing and didn’t have to run around the field for 6-8 innings before that on bad knees.
With as much as the Cubs are rumored to be willing to eat to get rid of him, he could be a nice pickup for a team who needs a DH with some pop.
Harry on CJH from ESPN1000 has inside info that Soriano may be gone before the All Star break… he’s usually got pretty good sources
13 likes for that LOL. How come I can’t get into the action?
Seriously, though after spending money for Soriano, Fukudome, and to a certain extent you can mention Marlon Byrd. The Cubs have yet to find the next Andre Dawson! They have spent a lot of money with nothing really to show. That was the point I was trying to make.
Also, Soler is going to make a lot more than Szczur. At least for now.
Didn’t they sign Marlon Byrd for 3/$15MM? I think they got their moneys worth out of him in the first two seasons. It’s just that he was playing on some really bad teams.
Soler is projected to be a far different player than Szczur, he’s got huge power potential. The Cubs need to stockpile prospects anyway, they’re far from sure things.
“I am sure that Soler will be paid quite a bit more.”
Maybe and maybe not; it depends mostly on how the players ultimately shake out.
But the part you’re overlooking is this: Szczur cost the Cubs a draft pick. Soler cost them some money in a year when they’re not spending it. If I’m not mistaken, Soler’s entire contract is roughly the same amount of money that came off the Cubs’ books last offseason. They could stick that in the bank and pay Soler’s entire contract, boom or bust, and be in exactly the same place they were yesterday except with an extra Top 50 prospect.
For a big-market team, in one of the last times a big-market team can flex financial muscle outside of free agency, this contract is a good one. It’s a risk like any contract, but it is a good one, reasonably sized and taken at the right time to take one. As a Cubs fan it has my full support regardless of how history judges it.
Soler has much higher upside than szczur.
HUZAH THEO! The first side that the tide is turning. Now move Dempster, maybe Garza, and Lahair. See I knew the off day would be good for the Cubs.
Why move Lahair? No one is going to give up anything of value for him. He’ll be 30 next year I believe and this is the first time hes had any major league success.
I could see Soriano getting moved to the Indians or Yankees possibly.
Both teams have deficiencies and injury issues at LF/DH, and they could use Sori’s monster RH power. The Cubs will have to eat a lot of salary, but that money’s a sunk cost anyway.
Trading Soriano means that the Cubs can platoon LaHair and Reed in LF, bring up Brett Jackson to play CF with Campana behind him, and bring up Anthony Rizzo to play first.
Ah, that would be sweet.
Jackson is certainly not major league ready, have you checked his stats lately? He’s striking out 30% of the time, he’s hitting a mediocre .261 (in the PCL! where the mean average is like .300), and can’t hit righties. At the very least he’ll likely stay down until September.
Indians maybe, Yankees no way! True the Yanks could use another OF’er, but Soriano is not better than Ibanez, Swisher and certainly not Jones in the field. The DH position is split among a whole set of players, so he would absolutely have no place to play in NY.
Damon has not produced as it was hoped in Cleveland, so that would be more realistic if the Cubbies pick up a good portion of the contract.
From a Cuban to a Cub’n.
A Cub for the next 9 years…but Cuban forever! 😉
Welcome to the drunk chorus of “hip hip Jorge!”
In all seriousness this needed to happen, good for the Cubs. Amora, Soler, Jackson outfield will be stellar.
Soler is a right fielder, time to find a new dream haha. This coming from a fellow Cubs fan.
jackson plays all OF positions. he played LF yesterday, and is regularly playing CF, so what’s your point here?
Factor in all of the other decent OF spects the cubs have like Szcuzr, and high potential guys like Dunston Jr. and Reggie Golden. Then you have Junior Lake who everyone raves about who is probably going to be an Of’er since Baez is the 3rd of the future. Jackson’s 30% k rate in AAA is making him look like an average regular not the star some people think he is.
seeing as how Lake has never played any OF, and that aside from SS, he’s played 2B the most, that’s probably a much much more likely scenario. I mean, perhaps it’s more logical to assume your way, though it eludes me.
and given that Jackson will reach the majors years before those other guys, he has the advantage of added time to prove himself an above average ML player. If he plays to expectations, which is 20-20 with high OBP and plus defense, it will be increasingly hard to take him out of the future roster to take a chance on yet to be proven players.
Well, I’m just saying but Lake hasn’t played 2nd base since 2009. He’s played 11 games at 3rd and 20 at ss both positions in which he’s possibly blocked. Even if he does move to 2nd, Barney has solid enough all around tools to be a solid regular for a long time. I was just saying that the OF seems to make the most sense given the current situation.
Even if we take all of that at face value, so what? Good prospects are good prospects. If ours happen to all be in the outfield, and they all pan out as major leaguers (and that’s a big if), then some of them will be traded to address other areas of need.
good stuff. good stuff
So has he actually agreed to terms on a contract? Or has his agent only announced that they will negotiate exclusively with the Cubs from now on?
Heyman says 30M. eek
EDIT: 9 years, not that bad of a deal now.
NINE years????
That nine year report makes me quite happy. We all know these guys are not sure things. But a nine year, 30 million contract for a high power upside OF is a nice gamble.
9 years?!?! uhhh
that’s good, not bad. that’s a hair over 3m/year which would be highway robbery if he pans out
Imagine a 29-year-old, in-his-prime slugger making $4 million? Brilliant deal.
Not necessarily since he can opt out once he hits arbitration in 5 years. So if he pans out he would go to arb and get significantly more money.
That cuts it….I’m buying my World Series tickets today!!!
9 years? Whoa. Jamie Moyer will be close to 60 by then!
Maybe they will sign with the same team as Free Agents that year.
“At least three or four teams placed bids of $20MM plus, according to Heyman”
Well that may be, but I wonder how many of those teams offered 9 years!
9 years is a negative for Soler. He would have much rather taken something like 6/$25MM. This is a great move for the Cubs.
Agreed.
Agreed
I’m not sure who made the mistake here: The Cubs offering a 9 year multi-million dollar contract to an unproven player, or Soler agreeing to be paid only $3.33MM/yr. if and when he has spent more than 3 years in the majors… But I’m pretty sure one party will regret this contract.
Nah, it looks great for both, really. If he doesn’t work out, $30MM is not much at all to a big market team like the Cubs. All that can be eaten now while they have the payroll lower anyway. If he does work out, that’s one heck of a contract for the Cubs.
For Soler, it sets him up very nicely for life no matter what he does and he hasn’t even played a single game yet. If he does become a star, he will hit free agency at ~30 years old and still has time for a huge payday.
“But I’m pretty sure one party will regret this contract.”
Probably Soler lol
the years don’t matter to the Cubs. Every extra year is a bonus. The 30 million is all that matter. That they can spread it out over 9 years is gravy. Add in the fact that if Soler is a fast riser, they may have bought out HUGE years of arb and FA, and the Cubs did well by going nine.
If Soler is any good, he’ll make FAR more than the 30MM in arbitration.
and if he’s arb eligible, he’ll opt to go to arb because he’ll make more there.
Soler still has decent leverage, and if he’s any good, could double the 30MM over the course of this contract.
What happened to all the posters claiming he would get 4/$40 or 5/$50M?
Second, if Soler is “as good as advertised”, why sign for 9 years when you could be a free agent in maybe 6 years as you hit your prime?
Yup. Odd for him to sign for that many years.
I was one of the posters and all reports called for a 4 year deal. We will find out more as the day passes but a 9/$30 million deal is a slam dunk win for the Cubs. System needs talent.
He isnt actually on the Cubs, They can negotiate a contract exclusively with him
He is signed. 9/$30 million. He is a Cub reporting to class A Peoria.
He won’t be in Peoria for a while, he hasn’t played baseball a lot in the past year since hes been dealing with his residency issues
WRONG. hes already a resident, hence how he became a free agent last week..
he declared residency in the dominican
He still hasn’t played baseball in a long time according to Kevin Goldstein and he may have to go to instructs before going to Peoria, don’t shoot the messenger.
He said and I quote ” Soler has barely played baseball for nearly a year due to the residency stuff. Don’t expect a straight shot to Peoria/Instant awesome.” and when asked if he goes straight to Peoria he responded, “He’ll need to get his timing back first.”
Can Soler do some voodoo magic and get rid of the curse that has plagued the Cubs for 103 years?
Kind of kidding aside it will be interesting to see how he will pan out. I wonder if the length of this contract is tied directly to Epstein and Co. And by that I mean it looks like the Cubs ownership is willing to be patient for 9 years and wait to see if Epstein can deliver a championship.
9 years, WOW. If he turns out to be good, 9 years will be an absolute steal.
lol 9 year deal…
Hey guys, what’s the word on Soler talent wise?
I’ve seen some scouting reports, like baseballprospectnation, and they are all giving him a very good outlook.
But compared to other recent hyped up talents, like Harper, Gose, Machado, Taveras, Jurickson Profar?
I’d take Harper, Taveras (who may have an 80 hit tool) and Profar over him right now. He’s said to have a big hole in his swing and some scouts said he looked like an 80 year old man in the outfield so we shall see here soon.
Bidding? Contract Negotiations? Auctions? Mulitple Offers? Really??? Is this so important that we need numerous explanations ad nausium? He will now play in the Cubs system. The discussion should be—Will he live up to the hype? The Cubbies are norotious for spending money for players who either never make it big or……get traded to another team for some over priced has been and THEN make it big on the new team.
Hey diddle-diddle, the Cubs solved the riddle!!!! Soler POWER!!!!
Well that deal became mediocre fast!
I hope it pans out, but allowing him to go to arbitration instead of honoring the deal makes the Cubs assume all the risk and tilts the proposition toward “this had better work.”
Question: It says he can opt out of the salaries, not the deal itself. Is that nitpicking the verbiage or is there a difference? Pretend we’re in some magic universe where Soler is in the major leagues tomorrow. He takes his three years of pre-arb salary, opts out of the salary to go to arbitration for three years, meaning if he were any other player he would then be eligible for free agency — except his deal is for nine years. Does his opting out previously mean he’s now a free agent, essentially reducing the deal to six years (probably seven because of the way the service time breaks out but you get the point)? I’m assuming that’s how it works.