Jorge Soler Signs Big Contract With Cubs

Which is absolutely correct. But, ho! A twist! Ken Rosenthal:

We don’t yet know the year-by-year breakdown of Soler’s contract. But if he makes good progress toward the major leagues, and if he has success in the major leagues, then after he’s accumulated three years of service, he could seek out more money than the contract guarantees. So you could think of this as a nine-year contract worth at least $30 million.

As the final international free agent of his type, Jorge Soler stood to cash in. He’s the last high-profile young guy from another country on whom a major-league baseball team could spend as much as it wanted, without having to worry about any future penalties. There were reports that Soler signed on with the Chicago Cubs. Those reports have been confirmed. Did he cash in? You bet he cashed in.

These reports have also been confirmed. The 20-year-old Soler has signed with the Cubs for nine years and $30 million.

They’re obviously willing to spend money for the right fit, though, and that right fit was apparently 20-year-old Cuban defector Jorge Soler.

But according to Tim Brown, it isn’t to be:

We heard earlier this week that Cuban free agent Jorge Soler wanted bids on his services in by Thursday. Several teams watched him work out on Wednesday, and then Thursday came and went with no news on bids.

Now we know why! Buster Olney:

Cubdar, as it were.

“We’ve obviously scouted him extensively – a lot of teams have,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “We had a similar situation with (Yoenis) Cespedes this winter and it’ll be intriguing. But certainly we’ve done our work on him. That doesn’t make us unique. That’s our responsibility – (to) scout him heavily and get to know him and we’ve tried to do that.With the new rules and caps on drafting and international signings, Soler is the last super-prospect who can be signed for a million-billion dollars if teams are willing to pay it. The 20-year-old outfielder is supposed to be a hardware store with All-Star potential, and almost every team in baseball has been sniffing around, with the Cubs being the team most often linked to him.

One thing we can hope for, no matter who signs him, is that there is an instant moratorium on puns based on Soler’s last name.