Boston Red Sox: Sign or pass on 3 rumored free agent targets
Boston Red Sox rumored free agent target No. 2: Jorge Soler
Last time we saw Jorge Soler in action he won World Series MVP for the Atlanta Braves. Despite only having two at-bats in the ALCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Soler lit up the Houston Astros, hitting .300 with three home runs and six runs batted in over the six game series. His back-to-back home run effort with Dansby Swanson in Game 4 shifted the tides of the series.
Now Soler is presumably set to earn quite a nice deal after his heroic efforts with Atlanta. While his postseason play was nice, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Soler is one of the most volatile players in the league, and signing him would be a huge risk that Boston may not be able to handle.
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Aside from last season, when he played 149 games, Soler has only played over 100 games one other time in his eight year career. That was in 2019, when Soler hit 48 home runs, drove in 117 runs, and hit .265. That’s the potential that Soler has come nowhere close to matching at any other point in his career.
Soler is a boom or bust hitter that just never seems to be able to stay on the field, whether it be because of injuries or poor play. He’s also a poor fielder who doesn’t really bring anything to table with his glove. He has stretches where he looks like one of the best players in the league, but that is often canceled out by prolonged stretches of mediocrity.
SIGN OR PASS: PASS
Boston needs an outfielder badly, and they may have to end up settling for Soler. He’s going to earn a nice payday because of how good he looked the last time we saw him in action, but throughout his career he has done nothing to prove he can be consistently relied upon to produce on a nightly basis. Soler has upside, but he’s too big of a risk for Boston to take a chance on right now, especially if they can land the next guy on this list…