San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Soler’s journey ‘home’
Slugger’s well-traveled career began with 11 attempts to defect from Cuba
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Jorge Soler didn’t just grow up outside Havana. The San Francisco Giants’ new DH shot way up, and quickly. His early growth spurt is why he’s now making millions playing in the major leagues rather than working with horses, which is what he wanted to do.
A scout and former Cuban player named Luis Ignacio González spotted a 7-year-old Soler among a group of schoolkids one day, putting his future in motion.
“Obviously with me being big and tall, I stood out,” Soler said, with Erwin Higueros interpreting. “And the guy said, ‘Hey, do you want to play baseball?’
“And I said no. But my dad said yes.”
Jorge Sr., a baker, couldn’t envision a way his tall kid would wind up working with horses on a ranch, and, he said González was so well known and so well regarded, everyone called him “Papi,” so his opinion was good enough for the elder Soler.
“Papi said, ‘Jorge is a baseball player. He was born with the talent,’ ” Jorge Sr. said.
The next time his height was an issue came when Soler was about 10 and he wasn’t selected for an international team because officials were convinced, with his height, that he was much older. He also wasn’t particularly motivated.
“I was playing baseball,” he said, “but I didn’t like it.”
Sent to a baseball academy at 12, Soler enjoyed finally getting to compete against older players, and he shone. He hated the food away from home — all the bread and sugar cane might explain why he was 6 feet tall before he got to high school — and decided to really devote himself to the sport so he could forge his own path.
At 16, he was starting to really make a name for himself, outshining all those older players.
“I was playing with men that were three years older than me, and I never used an aluminum bats, just wood,” Soler said. “During batting practice, I
would hit bombs, and the older players (with aluminum bats) did not. That’s when I realized, ‘Oh, I have talent.’ ”
The national team finally came calling, and Soler played in numerous international tournaments, including the Pan-Am junior world championships in 2009 in Venezuela, where Cuba faced a U.S. team that included Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. Soler, 17, was Cuba’s star, and he hit a memorable home run off Robbie Ray, his future Giants teammate.
Big-league teams took note, and Soler wasn’t getting the kind of opportunities he felt he deserved with the team he played for in Havana, which favored older players. Soler began to wrestle with the idea of defecting, knowing he would be banned from returning to his country and probably would never see many of his loved ones again.
“It was the hardest decision that I ever made,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘I’m leaving friends, family, neighborhood, everything that I know, but I’m going to the United States with a promise of a lot of money and then I could help my family financially.’ And when I made my decision, a lot of my family did not support it.”
Jorge Sr., though, was on board and said he would go with his son, despite a strong fear of the ocean — “I’ll go to the beach but the minute I touch the water, I’m out,” he said. There was also the uncertainty of if and when a boat would show up; they went to the harbor several times to find nothing. And it took Soler several attempts to slip away from his team.
The first time the duo tried to leave was in 2010. “At this age, I wouldn’t do it,” Soler said. “When you’re 18, you don’t think about the danger, but it was very dangerous. The boat was so small, maybe 20 feet, and the waves were so big and hitting the boat. It normally takes about three hours to get from Cuba to Miami and it took us about five.”
They didn’t make it. The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the boat and returned them to Cuba.
“The guy guiding the boat said that was the best thing that could have happened, because the conditions were so bad,” Soler said. “I know other people have had it a lot harder — a lot of those little boats don’t make it in that kind of weather. People drown.”
Soler was suspended from the Cuban team for six months, and his father lost his baking job. They were undeterred. According
to Soler Sr., they finally succeeded on their 11th attempt, making it to the Dominican Republic. Soler Jr. established residency in Haiti to become eligible to play in the United States, then signed with the Cubs. Two years later, he was in the big leagues. At 24, he played in the 2016 World Series, helping Chicago to finally end its long championship drought.
The Cubs traded him to Kansas City the next year. Soler was devastated.
“My mentality was that the Cubs were my team, because that’s how it is in Cuba, you’re assigned to a team and stay there,” he said. “That hurt me because they traded me after winning the World Series, but at the same time, I learned that that’s part of the business.”
It turned out that when Soler is healthy and plays most of the time, he can put up some impressive numbers. In 2019, he played in 162 games and led the AL with
48 homers.
After that season, he finally was able to return to Cuba for 12 days thanks to a law that lets defectors return after eight years. During that time away, his beloved grandparents died. “That was very hard,” he said.
In 2021, he was traded again, this time to Atlanta. There, he earned World Series MVP honors.
“I love Soler, he’s as pro as it gets,” said former Giants DH Joc Pederson, who was on that Braves title team. “He reminds me of Wilmer Flores — he goes about his business, he works really hard. I love him. He’s one of my favorite teammates.”
Stephen Vogt, the former A’s and Giants catcher who is now Cleveland’s manager, was on that team and he, too, is a big fan.
“The thing I love about Jorge is he’s always smiling,” Vogt said. “But what really blew me away was the plate discipline that he has — you see the big swings, and you do see some swing-andmiss, but when you look, he doesn’t swing at balls.
“When he hits one, that’s incredible.”
In 2022, his first year in Miami, injuries limited Soler to 72 games; the artificial turf did not help. Last year, he played in 137 games and clobbered 36 homers. Now, primarily DHing, he’s more likely to stay healthy.
He hasn’t homered this spring, but he’s batting .300, drawn six walks and struck out just five times.
“I’m fine with where he is right now,” manager Bob Melvin said. “As a matter of fact, if you want him to hit 10 home runs before spring’s over … let’s save those. He’s taking some walks, he’s getting his share of hits, he’s getting his at-bats. I’m happy with where we are with him.”
Hitting coach Pat Burrell said that a friend in Miami who had helped train Soler told him, “Jorge is the best guy in every capacity,” and he said he was not misinformed.
“When you first see him, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s just a mountain of a man,’ ” Burrell said of Soler, who is now 6foot-4, 235 pounds. “Then he smiles and he’s like the sweetest guy you’ve ever been around, and you talk about low maintenance, he’s just easy. He has such a simple swing, a simple approach and stays to the middle of the field. He has a plan, he works hard, he gets it done. He knows how to get ready.”
Burrell has noticed that Soler is making a big effort to work with the younger Spanishspeaking players, talking to them about hitting and serving as a good role model.
That is intentional, Soler said. He has reached the point in his career where being a sounding board, especially for the Latin players, is important.
“I’m older, I’m more mature, I want to be a leader,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in that. I think I can set an example by being here early, getting the work in, being responsible.
“We have a very good team, a good combination of youth and experience, and I’m a guy who likes to come into the clubhouse, smile, feel good vibes. I want to walk into the clubhouse and feel like I’m home. I think if we’re able to do that, we’re going to have fun.”