CONFIRMED: CUBS GET SOLER!!! 9yrs/30 mill

[CubColtPacer]

pardon my ignorance, but say it's a 4 year major league deal. he doesn't become a free agent after those four years, does he?

 

Unless there is a clause in the contract that says he will (like the one Cespedes and Fukudome got) than no. It will be like what is happening to Samardzija now. If he doesn't have enough service time for arbitration (which seems likely), then the Cubs will be able to cut his last years salary by the full 20% if they want to, or they can choose to non-tender him at that point. Unless there is that clause though, he'd be under Cubs control for the 6 years of major league service time just like every prospect.

[TruffleShuffle]

pardon my ignorance, but say it's a 4 year major league deal. he doesn't become a free agent after those four years, does he?

 

Unless there is a clause in the contract that says he will (like the one Cespedes got) than no. It will be like what is happening to Samardzija now. If he doesn't have enough service time for arbitration (which seems likely), then the Cubs will be able to cut his last years salary by the full 20% if they want to, or they can choose to non-tender him at that point.

 

thanks. i can't imagine that the cubs would give him a clause like that considering that he'll be in the minors for at least a year, probably two years of the deal. it's a risk and may not be an efficient use of resources, but they're not using them for anything else and the cubs very much need a high-ceiling offensive prospect. plus with the new rules, overpaying became inevitable.

[davell]

pardon my ignorance, but say it's a 4 year major league deal. he doesn't become a free agent after those four years, does he?

Only if that provision is put into the contract. It was in Cespedes, but I'd be shocked if it was in Soler's. Mainly due to the fact we'll be paying Soler millions to play in the minors. I'm not totally sure how it works, but let's say he makes the majors to start the 2014 season, for instance, and sticks. He'd play under his current contract for 2013 and 2014(assuming it's 4 years}. In 2015, we could give him a 20% reduction in salary, as it's still a pre arb year. Then, 2016 thru 2018 would be his arb seasons. I could be slightly off here, but I think I'm right.

[Irrelevant Dude]

I'm just getting home and wading through the news. Is this official or just speculation from one source?

[bsucubsfan]

my guess is the cubs are gonna pay him extra money so he doesn't ask for arbitration years to be cut out. Cubs will have control for a good while. Goldstein ranks him #1 because of a high ceiling. Starting to look up around here..

[A New Era]

looks like it's official and word is spreading. Looks like this all broke just within the hour. HELL YES!!!

 

http://www.csnchicago.com/blog/cubs-talk/post/Cubs-Soler-expected-to-agree-to-deal?blockID=650718&feedID=661

[Derwood]

so he went from "weeks from free agency" to "signed" in 24 hours?

[CubColtPacer]

pardon my ignorance, but say it's a 4 year major league deal. he doesn't become a free agent after those four years, does he?

Only if that provision is put into the contract. It was in Cespedes, but I'd be shocked if it was in Soler's. Mainly due to the fact we'll be paying Soler millions to play in the minors. I'm not totally sure how it works, but let's say he makes the majors to start the 2014 season, for instance, and sticks. He'd play under his current contract for 2013 and 2014(assuming it's 4 years}. In 2015, we could give him a 20% reduction in salary, as it's still a pre arb year. Then, 2016 thru 2018 would be his arb seasons. I could be slightly off here, but I think I'm right.

 

You're just one year off on your dates. If he came up at the start of 2014, he's play 2 years under his current contract, then knock 20% off in 2016, then be arb eligible from 2017-2019.

[98navigator]

pardon my ignorance, but say it's a 4 year major league deal. he doesn't become a free agent after those four years, does he?

 

No

[sneakypower]

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzaqa4R1Eh1qhfgrk.gif

[Irrelevant Dude]

So what does this do for the Cubs in terms of ranking their minor league system? Combining this with last year's spending spree in the draft, are the Cubs closing in on a Top 10 farm system?

[A New Era]

so he went from "weeks from free agency" to "signed" in 24 hours?

 

It's more of an "agreement" with the reporters and beat writers feeling pretty confident that they can report it as "done" even though it's not official. Follow?

[Outshined_One]

@Kevin_Goldstein Kevin Goldstein

Folks, the four year deal for Soler is DIFFERENT from the Cespedes deal. Service time won't start until big leagues, NOT a FA after the 4.

 

I'm okay with this.

[Sammy Sofa]

Bueno.

[dew1679666265]

This makes me feel better. Still pretty unhappy that we missed out on a completely reasonable Cespedes contract, but Soler is probably the better player in the long term.

[Rob]

Soler has been the guy this offseason as far as I was concerned. I'm ecstatic to have him in the system if true.

 

That said, $27.5 mil seems a tad on the crazy side. I'll reserve my opinion until more info is available, but wow.

Edited February 14, 2012 by Rob

[JoshiQ]

This is good news. Despite me not agreeing with much this off-season, everything will be fine as long as we are pretty much a .500 team in 2013. That should mean we are competing in 2014. Soler should hopefully be helping the end of 2013 and all of 2014.

[Cubswin11]

So what does this do for the Cubs in terms of ranking their minor league system? Combining this with last year's spending spree in the draft, are the Cubs closing in on a Top 10 farm system?

They should be close, especially with the #6 pick in this years draft (plus 2 more in the top 70 or so) and assuming some of the lower level guys continue to grow/break out.

[ctcf]

Wow, really sounds like it's all done. Fantastic job, regardless of the cost. They had money to invest and they invested it wisely. Really psyched for our minors.

 

And to recap what I've seen (sorry if reposted), Goldstein has him as the new #1 and #38 in baseball, and Law has him as the new Cubs #2

[Cubswin11]

This is good news. Despite me not agreeing with much this off-season, everything will be fine as long as we are pretty much a .500 team in 2013. That should mean we are competing in 2014. Soler should hopefully be helping the end of 2013 and all of 2014.

I think that's pretty aggressive, even if he is really talented. He's only 19 and will start the year in A ball. I wouldn't expect him to permanently be in the majors until 2015 or 2016 at the earliest (maybe a Aug/Sept cup off coffee in 2014), that still only puts him at age 22-24 (depending on his birthday). Rotoworld had this to say about him the other day;

 

His potential to hit for power has made him a player that some believe could have more upside than the heavily-scouted Yoenis Cespedes, but Soler would need 800 to 1,000 at-bats in the minor leagues before he's ready, and is not considered an immediate solution.

 

It's going to take about 4 years of minor league ball to accumulate that amount of ab's. Not that, that quote is the absolute rule or truth on Soler, but to expect him in the big leagues as earlier as 2013 or 14 is probably an unrealistic expectation to have of the guy.

[davell]

So what does this do for the Cubs in terms of ranking their minor league system? Combining this with last year's spending spree in the draft, are the Cubs closing in on a Top 10 farm system?

It'd depend on who you asked honestly. Law had us 20th, BA had us 14th before we even added Rizzo. My thinking is BA would probably bump us up to the 10-12 range. Law, Sickels, may put us somewhere in the 15 range. Either way though, it certainly helps and we're well on our way towards being a top 10 system next year.

[A New Era]

In no particular order, I just love doing this because our farm is starting to look so sexy, it's amazing the job the guys have done in such a short time. Brav [expletive] O. The 2 guys they are responsible for adding, IMO are #1 and #2. Adding 2 to the TOP of your farm list, makes it a whole lot [expletive] better.

 

Jorge Soler, of

Anthony Rizzo, 1b

Brett Jackson, of

Javier Baez, ss

Matt Szczur, of

Trey McNutt, rhp

Dillon Maples, rhp

Junior Lake, ss

Dan Vogelbach, 1b

[MWV]

HUZZAH.

[davell]

Callis has said in the past he'd rank somewhere in the 11 to 20 range for them, by the way.

[Irrelevant Dude]

that still only puts him at age 22-24 (depending on his birthday)

According to Wikipedia, Soler was born 11/19/92, which means he just turned 19 a few months ago. I agree that it is a tad optimistic to expect anything from him at the major league level prior to 2014 at the absolute earliest.