MIAMI — The Miami Marlins are signing who they believe will be their impact bat.
The Marlins are signing outfielder Jorge Soler to a three-year deal worth $36 million that includes opt outs after both the 2022 and 2023 seasons, a source confirmed to the Miami Herald on Saturday. MLB.com’s Mark Feisand was first to report.
Soler, 30, is a career .246 hitter with 121 home runs (including an American League-leading 48 for the Kansas City Royals in 2019), 307 runs scored and 343 RBIs over 661 career MLB games spanning eight seasons. He was the World Series MVP for the Atlanta Braves last season after going hitting .300 (6 for 16) with three home runs, six RBIs and four runs scored over six games.
When the deal is finalized, the Marlins will have to make a corresponding move to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
Where Jorge Soler fits
There’s no denying what Soler can bring offensively. Since 2018, he has had a .831 on-base-plus slugging mark with 179 extra-base hits. He was in the top-20 percentile of MLB hitters last season in average exit velocity (91.2 mph, 83rd percentile), max exit velocity (117.9 mph, 99th percentile), barrel rate (12.7 percent, 82nd percentile), and expected slugging (.494, 81st percentile).
Defensively... that’s where things get interesting.
Soler has primarily been a right fielder (344 career starts) and designated hitter (214 career starts) throughout his MLB career. He has never played center field, the main position the Marlins were trying to add via free agency or trade acquisition since the lockout ended but have had no success to this point.
But defense hasn’t always been Soler’s strong suit. According to FanGraphs, he had a minus-11 defensive runs saved last season in right field and is a minus-49 for his career overall.
This would point to him ideally getting starts as designated hitter with occasional starts in the corner outfield spots when needed.
The latest boost to the offense
Soler’s signing adds to the moves the Marlins did before the lockout when they signed outfielder Avisail Garcia and traded for infielder Joey Wendle and catcher Jacob Stallings.
Remove Stallings from the equation momentarily because his acquisition was mostly for his Gold Glove defense.
Garcia, Soler and Wendle combined last year accounted for 67 home runs, 210 RBIs and 215 runs scored.
That’s a needed increase for a team that finished with the second-fewest runs scored (623) and third-fewest home runs (158) in the 2021 season.
Could more moves be on the way?
It’s possible. The Marlins still don’t have a true center fielder on their 40-man roster, with Garcia, Jesus Sanchez, Bryan De La Cruz and Jon Berti the four on the 40-man roster who have experience at center field.
Garcia, Sanchez, De La Cruz, Soler and Brian Anderson are now all contenders for playing time in the corner outfield spots.
Garrett Cooper and Jesus Aguilar were originally going to take the bulk of the designated hitter starts, alternating between the DH and first base, with the outfielders getting occasional DH days. Soler is now added to that mix as well.
The Marlins at this point could try to flip the excess players from either of those groups (the outfielders or the designated hitters) in an attempt to trade for a center fielder or have one of the younger outfielders (De La Cruz makes the most sense) starting the season in the minor leagues.
