Phillies serious about Soler interest
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Phillies serious about Soler interest
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The Phillies are definitely a serious player in the Jorge Soler sweepstakes.
"Our scouts have seen him and we like him," Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said Thursday. "It may come down to where he wants to play and, of course, the money."
Exactly what it's going to take to sign the 19-year-old Cuban defector remains a mystery that cannot be solved until he actually is declared a free agent. All kinds of rumors have circulated about Soler's price tag. Earlier this week, an incorrect report surfaced that the Chicago Cubs were on the verge of signing Soler to a $27.5 million deal.
A baseball source said there is no way to know for sure when Soler will even become a free agent. There have been reports that the New York Yankees are also seriously pursuing Soler. The baseball source said the Phillies have remained in close contact with Soler and his agents since the young outfielder defected.
The source said he believes whenever Soler is declared a free agent that every team, including the Phillies, will be aware of what offer is being made by each team.
The Phillies' interest in Soler makes sense because the farm system's biggest weakness is in quality position players. The system has been depleted in recent years because of trades that have sent some of the team's best minor-league prospects elsewhere for players like Joe Blanton, Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Hunter Pence.
At 19, Soler will likely spend considerable time in the minor leagues regardless of what team signs him.
Comments (59)
Don't overpay, but this is one way to resupply the farm system.— 76er- When have I heard that before? — PhightinPhil
- So he is 19 huh. How much you wanna bet we find out he was actually 22 three years or so down the road. I think they count in dog years or something down there.— eaglessuperfan
- Yes. In 3 years, a 19 year old will be 22 years old — logicandreason
- When, or if he is found to have lied about his age, I'm pretty sure his contract will have made the necessary provisions regarding truthfulness...
— Phiggles - Would be a good move for the Phillies they say he has a real good chance of being better then cespedes he is just a little further away to the big leagues can never have enough 5 tool players phillies need to get younger anyway— PhillyFran75
- Ruben Nickels Amaro— FABER
- what? — franky
- FABER...are you calling Amaro nickles because he is cheap? You do know the Phillies have a top 5 payroll, right? Maybe i'm missing something. Does he have an extensive nickel collection?— annad
- EHOUGH ALREADY with the freakin' speaker blow-up auto-commercials!You guys want us to keep coming to this site- STOP them and come up with a different way to generate revenue!~— GNIKGNARLY
- Use a browser other than IE, like Chrome, and then mute the sound in your Philly.com profile.
- I use Chrome, been using it for a while, the mute option isn't working. — FatEagle
- Use both FlashBlock and AdBlock plugins on Firefox and you can control when and where you listen/watch those ads. — raltman
- So who declares the kid a FA and when is that expected?— PhillySubsMac
Comment removed.- I wish this site had more pop-up ads and automatic ad videos.— dvldvl2001
- Comment removed.
- He's an outfielder, though the rumor is the Phillies would try and groom him at 1B if possible. — jactaid
- "The baseball source said the Phillies have remained in close contact with Soler and his agents since the young outfielder defected."
— Robert Abooey - easglessuperfan, Dominican are the ones altering their certificates, FYI. So when you have probe of a Cuban player guilty of doing taht, please, let us know. BTW, those players play in a very organized baseball league and some, as Cespedes and Soler, have played for the Cuban National Team. It doesn't accomplish anything to fake their identities. They won't play better by saying they are 3 or 4 years younger. Dominican prospects and their 'buscones' (street scouts) do that, because agents won't sign prospects older than 16. Usually it takes a while to develop those kids. In the meantime, please post some insightful info, or just stay quiet.— EL Zorro
- Of course it would accomplish something to fake identities and say they are younger. There's an obvious aging curve in baseball and teams are more likely to take a chance on a younger player. And can you really blame foreign players for trying to fake ages and identities to escape that kind of environment? If two players had a stat line of 0.340/0.450/0.950 and one was listed at 25 and one at 32 who would be signed first?
Also, though the Cuban league is organized it's the equivalent of single A.
- Yeah, I heard that Class A comparison from one of those bloggers out there in the net. It must be a hell of a Class A league when they keep winning all those International tournaments. As a matter of fact it took ML players to beat Cuba in the Olympics in 2000 in 4 tries. Ben Sheets threw a hell of game. "Against Cuba, which had beaten the Americans 25 times in 28 games at major international tournaments, Sheets was nearly perfect. He threw a three-hit shutout, striking out five without giving up a walk for the victory.'' — EL Zorro
- The class A league comparison has been tossed around by many including Keith Law- who is a pretty reputable source on baseball happenings.
- Found it. From Law's chat today:
Question:
Thanks for the Lee answer. As far as the Cuban League, roughly what level would you say it would be equivalent to? AA? A+?
Answer
Low-A or worse. Pitching is very depleted. The problem with equating foreign leagues to a minor league level is that the foreign leagues (including NPB, KBO, etc) have much higher* spreads between the best and worst players.
*wider spreads, I should say.
- Hum, that's strange because most of the Cuban defectors who have or had success has been pitchers. — EL Zorro
- Zorro don't know if you've seen this. Just a small video of Soler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwfyBKBQQqU - How does signing this guy effect the payroll? Does it count for luxury tax purposes if the guy ends up playing in the minors?— 5LokoNYC
- That's the first time that I've hear RAJ called cheap? I guess that he has to spend over $200 million for Faber. Signing "19 year old" Cuban players for $30 million is never the way to restock the system. You could build 10 additional scouting departments for that money.— arijohns
- Here is some solid proof, eaglessuperfan, so you can educate yourself instead of making foolish statements:
In an interview with ESPN in March during spring training, Rosario denied that he had used a fake name, claiming that "Tony" was just a nickname. When asked in general why some Dominican players use false personal information, he said, "Some Dominicans lie about their age because if they are over 20 years of age, teams don't want to try them out. It's not like here in the U.S. where the teams will sign players who are 25 or 26 years old."
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1803614
In all, Major League Baseball has found about 550 cases of fraudulent identity -- either false birth dates or names -- for Latin American players in the last two years, 99% of them from the Dominican Republic.
Players from impoverished countries such as the Dominican, a tiny, baseball-crazed Caribbean island where the per capita income is $1,600 a year, are often encouraged to lie about their ages by family members or buscones, the independent scouts who scour the nation for talent, arrange tryouts and deliver players to teams or agents.
A 16-year-old with a strong throwing arm or home run-hitting power is deemed to have far more potential and would garner a higher signing bonus than a 21-year-old with the same tools.
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/01/sports/sp-dominicans1
— EL Zorro - El Zorro, Orlando Hernandez is Cuban and also lied about his birth date. Maybe YOU should educate YOURSELF before YOU call someone out.
BEAT IT. YA DOPE.— fact_finder - Wow, I guess that makes him part of one of the 1% non-Dominicans faking their age. BTW, his birth date was in dispute some reports had him born in 1965 and others in 1969, but he was still Orlando "El Duque'' Hernandez in Cuba and in the United States. — EL Zorro
- You said: Dominican are the ones altering their certificates, FYI.
You also said: So when you have probe of a Cuban player guilty of doing taht, please, let us know.
Wow, I clearly did what you said!
The birth date being in dispute is the issue. Why do you try to salvage any level of credibility for yourself by saying that he did not change his name? A name change is extraneous and out of scope to an age issue.
There are more Cubans who have lied about their birth dates. Even ones that played on the Cuban National Team!
The issue with defectors and Dominican players is that their countries do not have a reliable infrastructure to properly verify their age.
I'm sorry I'm not sorry if you take offense, but Cuba falls into the same category as the Dominican in that respect.
Again -- BEAT IT.— fact_finder - LOL. Cuban players lie to make the National Team, right dope. That's one of the most ridiculous, if not stupid comments in the history of this board. So I guess in the 2009 Cuban National Team that played in the World Baseball Classic infielder Eduardo Paret (37), catcher Rolando Merino (38) and pitchers Ciro Licea (34) and Pedro Luis Lazo (34) lied about their age. You idiot. That Cuban team was as old as the current Phillies team. Now should beat it. — EL Zorro
- No. That's not what I said. Learn to read. — fact_finder
- @fact_finder This is sometimes what happens when mixing it up with Zorro. It's worth it though; even though I enjoy mixing it up with him he has some good points and is clearly passionate about the Phillies and baseball. That's a good thing.
- Soler is an outfielder, who projects as a power hitting rightfielder with a strong arm.— EL Zorro
- Give the kid millions. He might be another Dominic Brown.— Boru
- Yawn. Let's worry about Soler in 4-5 years. But I guess it's better than another Roy Oswalt non-update. Can't wait for the players to report so these columns and articles start containing news or at least fresh quotes again.— eman
- Jorge Soler the next Nelson Cruz— eaglessuck@life
- It's good to see that Montgomery & Amaro are looking into signing this kid, as we fans are as aware as they are that the minor league cupboard is bare, making signings of this nature almost an imperative, as it's really the only way to replenish it in a hurry. I just hope this isn't an updated version of the old Bill Giles "teaser" routine where he used to feign interest in all sorts of high-priced free agents whenever the fan base got restless, while knowing that he didn't have a prayer of signing them. Trust me - if it is, it won't work. The obvious trend has been downward for the Phillies from the moment the 2008 parade ended, and when you do an honest age analysis, without signing this kid and others, this team could very easily devolve into an also-ran in '13 or '14.— RightSaidJeff
- Let's not fall into this Cuban defector player craze please. Lets be involved enough to drive up the price for the Yankees and all the other suckers. Build through the draft.— LennyFromPhilly
- Hey Philly.thompson837;
Regarding your question as to which position the kid plays; there was a clue imbedded in the article. This will reduce your guess from 1 in 8 to 1 in 3. Perhaps read the article before actually insulting it.
..the Phillies have remained in close contact with Soler and his agents since the young outfielder defected
— SaganRand - This was already addressed. Thanks for adding nothing. — fact_finder
- Fact finder-
Thank you for your thoughful, well-researched, and well articulated response to my comment. Not sure how I made it this far into my day without your cogent commentary and sage advice. Thanks again.— SaganRand - It was not advice. Those were two declarative statements with no suggestion for you to do anything.
Here's some advice:
Don't call someone out because you may expose yourself to the possibility of looking like an idiot.
Pretty sage, right?— fact_finder - Comment removed.
- Dear Phillies,
Please do not spend out of the bounty that you have accumlated and will continue to accumulate when you negotiate your new TV contract on a mega-talented latin outfielder who has #1 draft pick talent. Our system is stocked with them already. And if they fail, we can continue to sign 35 year old free agents with this extra dough. Please move on as everyone else has suggested.— guyguy4 - He's probably Jose Contreras' uncle for all we know.— Sackbutt
- So if he signs with the Phillies, what will his fan group be called. Perhaps the Soul Patrol or the Soul Train or Solar Power.— zeke128
- His agent is using us against the Yankees because he knows that Philly has deep pockets.— mumf86
- Phills highest payroll in NL. Will either be 2nd or 3rd in MLB. Phills minor leagers with high potential Leandro Castro OF, Valencia and Villabos infielders Julio Rodriguez. The infielders are probably 3 years away. The nickels remark just another misinformed fan.— Don w
- They have no shot here. If Amaro is talking it means they know they are out of the bidding and just trying to drive up the price.— JLA3
- while the kid seems to be 5 tool we have outfielders in system. We need a 3b, a 2b. Spend the money on inf not of— jeff gross
- The team needs to just focus on what they have and concentrate on their current minor league players.Build through the draft should now be the teams main focus.This kid can be a bust,he is no sure bet superstar.Put those resources to Shane V.and Cole contracts.— Andrew Grier
- The winner is.... Logicandreason...someone here can count! No dogyears needed!— Prausch
- Comment removed.
- Amaro's car hood is a nickel alloy.— orange rhino
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About this blog
The Phillies Zone is the place for up-to-the-minute Phillies coverage from the Inquirer.
Matt Gelb
Inquirer Staff Writer
Bob Brookover
Inquirer Baseball Columnist
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