In case you hadn't heard, the Chicago Cubs have won the bidding for Cuban defector Jorge Soler, which Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports to be nine-years in length and for $30 million.
But more importantly than what he's getting paid, we want to know what kind of player he's going to be.
Everybody has had some kind of take on Soler, some of which vary wildly. Having not yet seen him play, I'm not about to add to the guessing on a player that hasn't seen the field in a year. But what we will do is put all of the great Jorge Soler info that's out there into one place for you.
- Ben Badler of Baseball America has a background on the signing process and a full scouting report, calling Soler "one of the better young players Cuba has produced in recent years" and predicting "25 home run potential."
- Jeremiah Johnson of ViewFromtheBleachers.com is even more optimistic on Soler, already proclaiming him as the Cubs starting right fielder in 2015. (Warning: this is a Cubs blog, so it might be a tad biased. It still has good information, though.)
- Despite the bias, the optimism surrounding Soler by most Cubs fans is well-based, as Keith Law of ESPN.com points out, saying that he thinks Soler would have been a top-5 pick had he been eligible in this year's draft.
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs.com says that Soler is "not a Major League ready player, and should probably be expected to spend most of the next couple of seasons in the minors."
- Jeff Sullivan of SBNation.com points out that the Cubs can opt to take the arbitration route once Soler becomes eligible rather than the guaranteed salaries they have worked out at the moment.
