Jorge Soler was the second fiddle in the summer of Cuban prospects and still signed a nine year, 30 million dollar deal with the Chicago Cubs last season. While Yoenis Cespedes has emerged as a potential star for the Oakland Athletics, Soler, just 21 years old, has been spending time in the Cubs’ farm system, playing the role of a star prospect for the A team, Daytona Cubs.
Now he will miss five games due to wielding a bat towards the Clearwater Thresher bench as part of a mixup on Wednesday. Solar was also fined after sliding into second base and getting into it with a player on the opposing team. The incident was bench-clearing and ended with Soler carrying a bat towards the opposing dugout before being ejected and now suspended.
The 6’4, 215 lbs hitter had been thriving at the A level, hitting .435 with two long balls and an OPS of 1.258.
“Jorge is tremendously remorseful about what happened,” Cubs president Theo Epstein told reporters at Wrigley Field on Thursday. “He understands what he did was wrong. He didn’t sleep last night, up all night thinking about it. Very apologetic. He understands this can’t happen again, and understands the discipline associated with it.”
It’s unclear what caused the dust up to begin with, but some believe Soler’s family was brought into discussion. Epstein went onto explain:
“According to Jorge, there was some back and forth with a player on the other team during most of the game. Eventually something was said about Jorge’s family, and that’s when he lost his cool. But he understands and we agree that that’s not an excuse for what happened. He has to find a way to better manage his emotions on the field.”
Threshers manager Chris Truby, however, wasn’t buying it.
“I think it was just normal back and forth at second base,” Truby said. “I don’t think anything was said about his family. I don’t think our guys did anything wrong.”
