Cubs sign Cuba's Soler to $30 million deal
Before last week's draft, the Cubs talked of “impact.”
They certainly made an impact Monday, outside the draft, agreeing to terms with Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler.
The Cubs did not wish to comment, no doubt because Soler must first pass a physical exam, but a source close to the situation confirmed the deal to the Daily Herald.
Reports have the deal worth $30 million over nine years. There are ways for Soler to earn more money. According to reports, he can opt for salary arbitration (typically after a player accrues two or three years of major-league service) instead of taking the value of his contract in what would be his arbitration-eligible years.
Soler was one of the big-name Cuban defectors, along with Yoenis Cespedes, who signed with Oakland, and Gerardo Concepcion, who signed with the Cubs and is now pitching for their Class A Peoria farm club.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Soler is a power hitter who is projected by some as a right fielder. He played for the Cuban National Team in the 2010 World Junior Baseball Championship, where he hit .304 with an on-base percentage of .500 and a slugging percentage of .522.
Although there has been much speculation on where Soler will go once the deal is official, know this: He has not played much organized baseball recently, so the Cubs are likely to ease him in.
One likely scenario is for the Cubs to send him to their spring-training facility in Arizona before assigning him to one of their Class A clubs, either Peoria or short-season Boise of the Northwest League.
In getting Soler, the Cubs beat out such big-market teams as the Yankees and the Dodgers, as well as the Braves. It has been a stated goal of the new Cubs front office, headed by president Theo Epstein, to build from within.
Actually, the Cubs began spending heavily on amateur talent in last year's draft, shelling out a club-record $12 million.
In last week's draft, the Cubs took outfielder Albert Almora with the sixth pick overall. They'll likely spend heavily to sign him and keep him from going to the University of Miami on scholarship.
Talking quality starts: We've written a lot here in this space and online in recent years about #8220;quality starts#8221; and their correlation to winning.The quality start has been maligned over the years, largely because its detractors focus on the minimum standard for a quality start: at least 6 innings pitched and no more than 3 earned runs allowed.Those who criticize the quality start say, #8220;6 innings and 3 earned runs makes for a 4.50 ERA.#8221;So it does. But a few things on that: First, nobody said the stat is perfect; it isn't. Second, you've got to start somewhere. Third, and most important, most quality starts are far better than the 6-inning, 3-run minimum.Let's take a look at quality starts and the Cubs this season.One of the reasons the Cubs are so bad #8212; they're on pace for 108 losses #8212; is because they've not taken advantage of their quality starts.Just for fun, take a guess at how many minimum-requirement quality starts the Cubs have this year.Two.Chris Volstad (remember him?) pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on April 14 at St. Louis, and the Cardinals beat the Cubs 4-1. On May 6, Travis Wood came up from Class AAA Iowa and gave up 3 in 6 innings as the Cubs beat the Dodgers 4-3 in 11 innings.All of the other Cubs quality starts have been much better than 6 and 3.In Sunday's 8-2 victory at Minnesota, Ryan Dempster turned in the Cubs' 29th quality start of the season, going 8 shutout innings. Over those 29, Cubs starting pitchers have a sparkling ERA of 1.62.As a team, however, the Cubs are only 15-14 in those games. For comparison's sake, the 2011 Cubs reached their 29th quality start on June 27. At that time they were 20-9 in quality start games, and the starters had an ERA of 2.09.So what gives? Several bullpen blowups and an offense that has had trouble finding an ignition point all year.The Cubs picked up quality starts in the first three games of the season, but Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood combined to wreck those starts by Dempster and Matt Garza before Jeff Samardzija went 8 innings on April 8 to get the win.After going on a mini-run in mid-May to bring their record to 15-20, it has been pretty much a disaster for the Cubs ever since as they've gone 5-20.They've had 10 quality starts in that time, going only 3-7 in those games despite their starters posting an ERA of 2.11 (16 ER in 68 IP).And in non-quality starts? The Cubs are 5-26 in those games, with the starters having an ERA of 7.94.Honor for Dempster:Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster was named co-player of the week in the National League, along with Arizona's Jason Kubel, for the period ending Sunday.Dempster got the only 2 victories on the Cubs' disastrous 10-game road trip, beating the Brewers and the Twins. Over 15 innings, he gave up no runs while striking out nine.bmiles@dailyherald.com