The Great 48: Soler Power

The Great 48: A Cuban slugger’s journey to the Royals’ single-season home run record

This story was featured in Issue 6.2 of Royals Baseball Insider.

A beam of sunlight shined through the clouds and into a batting cage in Miami, Florida. A young Cuban slugger took another hack off the tee, causing a thwack sound to echo throughout the neighborhood. It was the winter of 2018.

That’s where the slugger learned to generate what’s now referred to in Kansas City as Soler power.

Three years before Jorge Soler became the Royals’ single-season home run leader, he won a World Series with the Chicago Cubs. Less than two months after that, the Cubs deemed Soler expendable, and sent him to Kansas City in a trade for Royals closer and 2015 World Series hero Wade Davis.

Before Soler ever stepped foot inside Kauffman Stadium — one of the largest parks in the league — he felt pressure to prove he was worth one of the most dominant relief pitchers in recent memory.

“I was traded for a big-time pitcher and I wanted to live up to those expectations,” Soler told MLB.com earlier this season through interpreter Pedro Grifol. “I didn’t do it at the beginning.”

“The beginning” of Soler’s story was in 2011, when he defected from Cuba. Once he arrived in the Dominican Republic, he finally was able to showcase to teams his talents, including his jaw-dropping power, which is what enticed the Cubs to sign him to a nine-year Major League contract in 2012. He spent less than two seasons in the minors before making his debut as a 22-year-old in 2014, and posted a whopping .903 OPS in 24 games.

Soler was limited to just 101 games in 2015 thanks to two stints on the Injured List. A separate injury cost him two months in 2016. Although he flashed tantalizing power in games, Soler played in just 187 games with the Cubs over those two seasons. His inability to stay healthy was preventing him from becoming the middle-of-the-lineup slugger the Cubs thought he could become.

Following the 2016 World Series, the Cubs and Royals completed the Soler-for-Davis swap. The Cubs solidified their bullpen and the Royals acquired a cost-controlled position player who they thought could eventually challenge Steve Balboni’s longstanding franchise home run record of 36, set in 1985.

“We obviously love his upside, love his power,” Dayton Moore said following the trade in December of 2016. “We’re getting a player we feel is just scratching the surface.”

But before Soler could display that power and upside in Kansas City, injury struck yet again. He missed the first five weeks of the 2017 season, and hit just .164 (9-for-55) in 18 games upon his return.

That year, Mike Moustakas — not Soler — became the player to break Balboni’s longstanding single-season home run record, hitting 38. But Soler was watching.

He entered the 2018 season healthy and appeared primed for a breakout. After an offseason of work with private hitting coach Mike Tosar, who has worked with Eduardo Escobar and Yonder Alonso, among others, Soler improved his mindset and approach.

“You’re a great person,” Tosar told Soler, via The Athletic. “But you’re too nice. You can’t take that demeanor to the box. You have to turn yourself into a lion.”

Soler was well on his way to a breakout in 2018, hitting nine home runs through 61 games. He worked closely with Royals quality control and catching coach, Pedro Grifol, watching video, analyzing heat maps and formulating a new plan for each day’s opposing pitcher.

Then on June 15, his progression was stunted again. A foul ball struck his left foot and fractured the first metatarsal. He wouldn’t see Major League action again that year.

“Him getting hurt, I believe personally, helped his development,” Grifol recently told The Athletic. “He had to sit here and watch and see every day what he could be doing.

“Last year, I believe Soler learned the game.”

After the injury healed, Soler rejoined Tosar in Miami last offseason. He wanted to continue refining his approach under the tutelage of Tosar and his relentless style.

They would meet four to five times a week, but only after Soler would run or lift weights. Tosar pushed Soler to refine his mental approach, and inside the cages, Soler worked to better identify sliders, a pitch that plagued him in previous years.

He entered the 2019 season eager to combine his pregame preparation routine with his newfound approach at the plate. And that he did.

Soler hit seven home runs in both April and May, and hit eight more in June. During the All-Star break, he vowed to become more disciplined at the plate. And he did that too.

During a 10-game road trip from August 2–11, Soler hit .424 with a .537 on-base percentage. Seven of his 14 hits during that stretch left the yard, matching the club record for home runs on a single road trip. His efforts led to American League Player of the Week honors for August 5–11, and eventually led to his second straight Royals Player of the Month award.

“I’ve seen great power hitters,” manager Ned Yost said. “But I don’t know if I’ve seen guys that hit like him.”

On the third day of September, Soler hit his 39th home run of the season, breaking a tie with Moustakas for the Royals single-season home run record. Not only had Soler eclipsed Balboni, but he had eclipsed the guy who eclipsed Balboni.

A day later he hit his 40th homer and eventually finished with 48, one more than Rafael Palmeiro for the most by Cuban-born player.

“There’s a lot of emotions going on right now,” Soler said after breaking Moustakas’ record. “Maybe when I get home [it will set in], but it hasn’t yet.

Though he sometimes downplayed the significance of the record as he pursued it, Soler later admitted that he was relieved to reach that mark. In his mind, breaking the record validates the trust the Royals put in him when they acquired him for Davis following the 2016 season.

“There’s a weight off my shoulders now because I’ve finally lived up to those expectations,” he said.

But this does not mean Soler is a finished product. Still just 27 years old, Yost believes he has not yet peaked.

“The thing that’s so encouraging and exciting is he has so much more room to grow,” Yost said. “He’s going to continue to develop because of that work ethic.”