SURPRISE, Ariz. _ Just eight days before opening day, Royals outfielder Jorge Soler's spring hit a familiar and painful snag.
Soler strained an oblique muscle while competing in a minor-league game Sunday afternoon, Royals manager Ned Yost said. The severity of the strain was unknown on Monday morning.
Soler, 25, was slated to undergo an MRI on Monday, but barring some unexpected good news, he will likely begin the season on the 10-day disabled list.
"We're not going to really wonder about it until we know," Yost said Monday morning. "We've got to know the severity. But is it a DL thing? It very well could be."
Acquired from the Chicago Cubs in an offseason trade for closer Wade Davis, Soler had started slowly in his first spring with the Royals. He entered Monday batting just .143 (7 for 49) with two homers in 17 Cactus League games.
In the last two weeks, he had begun playing in minor-league games in an effort to rack up additional at-bats. On Sunday, he suffered the injury while reaching for a pitch out of the strike zone in his last at-bat, Yost said.
"He went for a down-and-away pitch," Yost said. "He felt it."
Soler was expected to begin the season as the Royals' starter in right field, but the .injury could cause Soler to miss significant time. The most serious oblique strains can require up to six weeks of recovery. Last year, outfielder Jarrod Dyson suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain in a Cactus League game on March 2. He did not make his season debut until April 19.
For Soler, the oblique strain is the latest setback in a young career that has been hampered by an assortment of nagging muscle injuries.
Before making his major-league debut in 2014, Soler sustained strains to his left and right hamstrings, which caused him to miss more than two months of action. He also suffered an oblique strain in 2015 that sidelined him for more than three weeks in late August and early September.
The same season, Soler also missed close to five weeks because of a left ankle sprain. He injured the ankle while awkwardly stepping on first base during a close play.
Last season, the hamstring issues resurfaced. Soler strained his left hamstring on June 6 in Philadelphia and did not play again until Aug. 5. He finished the season healthy, helping the Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
